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Preparedness is the Shield and the Sword. 
(See page 225) 



Right and Duty 

OR 

Citizen and Soldier 

Switzerland 

Prepared and at Peace 

A MODEL FOR THE UNITED STATES 



BY 

FREDERICK A. KUENZLI 

Assistant Appraiser Port of New York 

Graduate of Teachers' College of Wettingen, Switzerland, and of the 

^cole Polytechnique Federale at Zurich, Switzerland 

Formerly an Officer of the Swiss Army 



Published by 

National Defense Institute 

Tribune Bldg., New York City 

G. E. STECHERT & CO., Selling Agents. 






Copyright 1916 
by Frederick A. Kuknzli 



fl 


trS 


DEC 15 1916 


©CI.A41 


53093 



The United States and Switzerland have common prin- 
ciples of life, common ideals and common aspirations. * * * 

How can Americans differ about the safety of 
America? * * * 

/ cannot tell you what the international relations of 
this country will be to-morrow, and I use the word liter- 
ally; and I would not dare keep silent and let the country 
suppose that to-morrozv zvas certain to be as bright as 
to-day. * * * 

JVe think first of peace, we think of the Civilian life, 
we think first of industry ; we want the men who are going 
to defend the Nation to be immersed in these pursuits 
of peace. But we want them to know how, when oc- 
casion arises, to rally to the assistance of the professional 
soldier of the country and show the nations of the world 
the might of America. * * * 

We are in the midst of a world that we did not make 
and can not alter; its atmospheric and physical conditions 
are the conditions of our own life also, amd therefore, as 
your responsible servant, I must tell you that the dangers 
are infinite and constant. I should feel that I was guilty 
of an unpardonable omission if I did not go out and tell 
my fellow countrymen that new circumstances have arisen 
which make it absolutely necessary that this country 
should prepare herself, not for war, not for anything 
that smacks in the least of aggression, but for adequate 
national defense. * * * 

When the world is on fire, hozv much time can you 
afford to take to be ready? ''' * * 

— President Woodrow Wilson. 



Americans foremost advocate of Preparedness, Major- 
General Leonard Wood, zvrites the following comment 
on this book: 



HEADQUARTERS EASTERN DEPARTMENT 
GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY 



November i, ipi6. 

My dear Mr. KuenMi: 

I return herezvith your manuscript ''Right and Duty 
or Citizen and Soldier" "Szvitzerland prepared and at 
peace, a model for the United States." I think it is ex- 
cellent and will help immensely to point out to our citi- 
zenry the necessity of universal training. Your synopsis 
of Swiss history, Switzerland's wonderful democratic in- 
stitutions and legislation, her defense system, and your 
patriotic suggestions should be read by every American. 
Your translation of the whole Military Constitution gives 
the reader a deep insight of the character of the brave, 
progressive, patriotic Swiss nation. 

I wish the book the largest measure of success and 
hope you will keep up the zvork of building up general 
interest in this all-important subject of military pre- 
paredness. 

Sincerely yours, 




/foW^Cc.^^^^^^^^1^*-^ 



TTNIVERSAL military service is the only safe and 
equitable basis of national defense. It cannot be 
universal unless it is compulsory. The volunteer system 
is a failure sometimes, and a dangerous expedient always. 
It tends to sacrifice noble and generous youths and per- 
mit selfish and cowardly citizens to shirk their duty. 

The more the Swiss system of universal compulsory 
military service is studied, the more it is seen to be ap- 
plicable to the United States. There is no injustice or 
favoritism in it. 

It creates the greatest possible defense against emer- 
gency ivith the least possible expense of time, money and 
service. 

It utilizes to the full the manhood strength of the 
nation, without interfering with the peaceful pursuits of 
the people. 

It energizes and builds up the physique and sturdiness 
of its men zvithout making them professional soldiers. 

— Louis N. Hammerling in the American Leader. 



r^UR zveakness zvill invite attack, so preparedness is 
not only the szvord, hut it is the shield. No nation 
will attack us if zve are strong, an insignificant nation 
might attack us if zve are zveak ; so preparedness shall 
avert zsuar, and, therefore, is more a peace measure than 
a zvar measure. 

The basis of preparedness must not only be trained 
soldiery, properly officered, but in the training of our 
citizen-soldiery in the schools zve must develop not only 
the latent material resources of the nation, but those re- 
sources of strength and patriotism zvhich can be found 
best in the education of the youth, and in the discipline 
of the man. 

— U. S. Senator Phelan, Cal. 



PREFACE. 



THERE are two paths to preparedness. One is that 
of militarism, and is repugnant to freemen. It 
means a large standing army, in which each man 
would be compelled to serve his alloted term of years. 
It means being driven. It means the breaking down of 
equality, of democracy. It means subtracting hundreds 
of thousands of productive human units from the sum 
total of the nation's economic productivity. 

The other path is the way of education, the training 
and proper development of the bodies of our boys while 
they are in school, so that no long period of military 
training when they are grown will be necessary to make 
.potential soldiers of them. That is the path that can be 
trod without upsetting the principles of a republic. 

Physical training of the boys in the public schools, 
complemented at maturity by a short period of universal 
military training, has made the citizens of the Swiss 
Republic the best soldiers, man for man, on earth. A 
thing to be noted is, that system has not made Switzer- 
land any the less democratic ; it has not made a militarist 
nation of her. 

Universal military training is bound to come in Amer- 
ica. Why not lay the foundation for it and make it 
easier by educating our boys to look forward to it as a 
joyful service, not a disagreable duty? 

A system of voluntary military training might have 
been practicable some years ago. It is not practicable 
now, not only for the reason that no sufficient number 
would volunteer, but because of the utter impossibility 
of training hundreds of thousands of raw recruits when 



the enemy is almost at our door. The average American 
has come too much to place his personal comfort and 
convenience, the gratification of his appetites, the pursuit 
of material wealth above the spirit of self-sacrifice that 
must animate a patriot. 

The poison has sunk deep. The antidote is universal 
military training. 

Does that sound harsh? No doubt it does to the 
sadly increasing effeminate type of male human being 
that has grown up under the fostering paternal care of 
the pacifists. But would not a devastated land, sacked 
cities, helpless men slaughtered, women widowed, babes 
orphaned and dearly-bought wealth confiscated by an 
alien conqueror be harsher still? 

That can never happen, say you? And why not? 
Isn't it possible to contemplate the day when the Ameri- 
can people will thank German enterprise for the lesson 
taught us when the first submarine merchantman crossed 
the Atlantic, eluding enemy men-of-war and slipped into 
Baltimore harbor? Can America fail to heed that les- 
son? Is there a man honored by the American people 
with authority who will dare to be so base as to make 
light of it? 

The minute the ''Deutschland" poked her periscope 
above the surface of Baltimore Bay there crumbled one 
of the stock arguments opponents of a larger Army and 
Navy have dinned into our ears from time immemorial. 
As assets of national defense the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans are of little more value to the American Republic 
as though they did not exist. 

Destruction of our fleet on either coast by hostile 
submarines sent from Europe or Asia is no longer a 
dream. It could be done, and we most reckon on the 
day it may be attempted. That once accomplished, fleets 
battering down our coast defenses would clear the way 
for landing an invasion, and then the future existence 
of the Republic would depend on the Army, and the 
number of trained men she could call to the colors. 

It is so simple that extensive argument would be 
fatuous. 

10 



We must have the men — hundreds of thousands of 
them — trained to the use of arms, and the officers to 
command them. Now is the time to arrest the progress 
of the cancer with which pacificism has infected our 
social and poHtical institutions. Those who would never 
volunteer to undergo military training must be compelled 
to do so. The State must exercise its inherent right to 
take such measures as it deems needful for the protection 
of its own life. 

Every American boy, physically fit, should spend at 
least six weeks each in his 19th, 20th and 21st year in 
military training for his country's and his own health's 
sake. 

What nobler, prouder, or more patriotic spirit could 
animate the hearts of our sons when they go to the ballot 
box for the first time to exercise their right to choose a 
government deriving its just powers from the consent of 
the governed, than the sublime consciousness they can 
also give assurance to the State that they are able to de- 
fend that government should necessity impose that duty 
upon them. 

On the theory that such universal training is impera- 
tive, the author has undertaken to show by the achieve- 
ments of the Swiss Republic what should be done, in a 
general way, and how. 



II 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



I. PERIOD BEFORE 1848. 

Six centuries of experience with violent neighbors 
bent on conquest taught Switzerland the value of pre- 
paredness. Ages of growing civilization have served 
chiefly to refine, hardly to lessen, the spirit of *'Faust- 
recht" — the principle dominating the conduct of the 
powerful princes of Central Europe — ''the right of the 
mailed fist." 

Switzerland had need to see to it that her military 
establishment kept pace with that of any power liable 
to be hurled against her. The hob-nailed shoes that 
enabled a handful of ill-armed mountaineers rolling 
boulders down upon their foe to overcome the flower 
of Hapsburg knighthood on the slippery side of 
Morgarten in 1315 would not avail today against 
mountain artillery. Hence, the wall of bayonets in 
August, 1914, warning Germans, Austrians, French 
and Italians alike that "Helvetia" was not to be an- 
other Belgium. 

Your Swiss is no militarist. He does not strut 
about with a chip on his shoulder, looking for fight. 
He loves peace ; but he loves his liberty, his rights and 
his country's honor better than peace, and will fight to 
maintain them. Experience, as has been said, having 
taught the Swiss people that the best way to awe a 
bully nation was to be ready to repel encroachment, 
Switzerland is prepared. 

13 



An idea of how her military prowess sprang from 
her needs and so grew up amongst republican institu- 
tions as not to be in any way repugnant to them is 
necessary to complete understanding of the example 
America's little sister of the Alps offers us today. 

SWITZERLAND DURING THE INTERREGNUM. 

When Conrad IV. succeeded in 1250 to the crown 
which his weak predecessor, Frederick II., had per- 
mitted to sink to little more than a bauble, he tried 
manfully to wield again into a cohesive and powerful 
domain the historic Holy Roman Empire. Had he 
lived longer perhaps he might have succeeded. But 
four years were all too short for such a task and there 
followed until 1272 that period of disorder known as 
the Interregnum. 

It was during the Interregnum that the seeds of the 
plant that was later to blossom into Swiss independence 
were sown. The Cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unter- 
walden were among those petty states caught in the 
maelstrom of warring emperors, nobles and Popes, who 
suffered from the near-anarchy and oppression resultant 
from lack of organized government. 

Though obscurity surrounds the details of just what 
did take place among these three Cantons during the 
Interregnum, enough has been gleaned from documents 
of later date to make it certain that they formed some 
sort of an alliance for mutual protection and resistance 
against foes of any of them and to fix the date of this 
agreement as about 1260, six years after the death of 
Conrad IV. 

The accession of Rudolph to the throne of the Em- 
pire in 1272 gained the three allied Cantons a powerful 

14 



friend. Rudolph was the first member of the House of 
Hapsburg to wear the imperial crown. He lost no time 
in energetically setting to work to conquer the rebellious 
German princes who did not relish the thought of having 
a real sovereign after the eighteen years of license they 
had enjoyed. 

LOYAL TO THE EMPIRE. 

No more loyal vassals, no stronger aid against the 
rebels did Rudolph find than the Swiss people. The 
Swiss had always supported the Emperor for that mat- 
ter, even against the Pope, so in the case of Rudolph 
they were merely following a course they had always 
pursued. But that did not lessen Rudolph's gratitude 
toward them and during his reign they enjoyed many 
favors. 

Though the Swiss loved Rudolph they did not alto- 
gether trust the other princes of the House of Hapsburg, 
and, when Rudolph died in 1292, the Cantons of Uri, 
Schwyz and Unterwalden lost no time in forming the 
League that renewed their earlier covenant and that 
was destined to be the keystone of the arch of Swiss 
independence. Before tracing the general conditions 
without, that caused apprehension among the three Can- 
tons at the death of Rudolph, it may be well to explain 
their internal conditions in 1291. 

In the ninth century, Louis of Bavaria, grandson of 
Charlemagne, had founded the convent of Zurich of 
which his two sisters became abbesses, receiving as a 
grant the greater portion of the Canton of Uri. 

The Abbess ruled her vassals through a secular 
warden. This wardenship became so sought-after a post 
that the Houses of Zahringen and Hapsburg in turn 
had succeeded in having abrogated the provision of the 

IS 



original grant making the abbey-lands of Zurich directly 
dependent on the Empire, and held the wardenship in 
their famihes. In 1231, however, Frederick II. revoked 
this Hapsburg privilege, and placed Uri once more in 
direct vassalage to the Empire. When Rudolph ascended 
the imperial throne, although himself a Hapsburg, he 
confirmed this privilege out of gratitude for the aid the 
Swiss had rendered him against his enemies. 

Schwyz, also, had had a grant from Frederick II. in 
1240, making its people directly dependent upon the 
Empire, but the Hapsburgs had succeeded in nullifying 
it, and likewise in prevailing upon their kinsman Rudolph 
not to renew it as he had that of Uri. In 1291 much 
of Schwyz was under control of Hapsburg nobles who 
were reaching out steadily, grasping greater power and 
wider domains. In addition there was in Schwyz a 
community of free peasants, but these, too, were under 
the government of the Emperor's delegates who in this 
case were scions of the same House of Hapsburg. 

THE HAPSBURG MENACE. 

Unterwalden was still more completely under the 
dominion of the Hapsburgs, being part of their personal 
holdings. The land itself of Unterwalden was all owned 
either by Hapsburg nobles or by the Abbey of Murbach, 
and the Hapsburg held the Murbach wardenship. Hence, 
Unterwalden had neither the free tenancy that obtained 
in part of Schwyz nor the privilege of direct dependence 
on the Empire that characterized Uri. 

Thus did the Hapsburg menace face the Swiss when 
their friend and protector Rudolph died, leaving them 
at the mercy of nobles and abbots who were determined, 
no matter how unjust the means or oppressive the 

16 



measures, to extend their own power and aggrandize- 
ment. Before Rudolph's reign, even during the Inter- 
regnum, the shadow of imperial power had been sufficient 
to give the Swiss some need of protection against en- 
croachment of the Hapsburgs. Rudolph combined the 
power of the Hapsburgs and the Empire in one head, 
but the danger was averted because Rudolph loved 
and was loved by the Swiss. But at his death the Swiss, 
fearing the imperial crown would fall to some Hapsburg 
willing to assist his numerous noble kinsmen in their 
designs of conquest, took the position that "forewarned 
is forearmed" and the three Cantons promptly renewed 
their alliance of a generation before. 

Thus was born the League of 1291 — the Magna 
Charta of Switzerland. 

LEAGUE OF THE THREE CANTONS. 

The original document is still preserved in the ar- 
chives of the town of Schwyz. Its text, attended by the 
seals of the men of all three Cantons, reads as follows : 

*'Be it known to everyone, that the men of the 
Dale of Uri, the Community of Schwyz, as also 
the men of the mountains of Unterwald, in con- 
sideration of the evil times, have full confidently 
bound themselves, and sworn to help each other 
with all their power and might, property and 
people, against all who shall do violence to them. 
That is our ancient Bond. 

"Whoever serves a lord, let him obey accord- 
ing to the conditions of his service. 

"We are agreed to receive into these dales no 
Judge, who is not a countryman and indweller, 
or who hath bought his place. 

17 




i8 




U. S. Senator George E. Chamberlain 
Father of Universal Training in Congress. 



"Every controversy amongst the sworn con- 
federates shall be determined by some of the 
sagest of their number, and if anyone shall chal- 
lenge their judgment, then shall he be constrained 
to obey it by the rest. 

''Whoever intentionally or deceitfully kills an- 
other shall be executed, and whoever shelters him 
shall be banished. 

''Whoever burns the property of another shall 
no longer be regarded as a countryman, and who- 
ever shelters him shall make good the damage 
done. 

"No one shall destrain a debtor without a 
Judge, nor anyone who is not his debtor or the 
surety for such debtor. 

"Everyone in these dales shall submit to the 
Judge or we, the sworn confederates, all will take 
satisfaction for all the injury occasioned by his 
contumacy. And if in any internal division the 
one party will not accept justice, all the rest shall 
help the other party. 

"These decrees shall, God willing, endure eter- 
nally for our general advantage." 

The spirit that impelled the three Cantons to renew 
and enlarge their "ancient bond" in 1291 is fully re- 
vealed in this document. The mutual pledge of aid 
against any aggressor, "in consideration of the evil 
times," reflects all too plainly the determination of the 
Swiss to resist to the end anticipated encroachments of 
the Hapsburgs. But at the same time they made it plain 
they did not seek to overthrow lawfully established in- 
stitutions, as witness the dictum that any man bound in 

19 



vassalage to a feudal lord should fulfill the terms of 
his service. General law and order were guarded in the 
penalties fixed for murder, arson and robbery, while per- 
sonal rights were held inviolable in the provision for- 
bidding constraint "without a judge." 

In other words the Swiss served notice on the Haps- 
burgs and any other who might attempt to oppress them : 

"This far shalt thou go, and no farther ! The rights 
and grants the Empire has lawfully vested in you shall 
not be disturbed. But you shall not encroach beyond 
those rights, nor enslave a free people!" 

The League of 1291 is often referred to as the Swiss 
"Declaration of Independence." While this is not alto- 
gether an inappropriate title for the agreement of the 
Cantons to defend their liberties against aggressors, the 
impression should not prevail that Switzerland under- 
took to become independent of all authority but its own 
in 1291. The Cantons still acknowledge the sovereignty 
of the Holy Roman Empire and purposed continuing to 
do so unless, the imperial crown remaining with the 
Hapsburg, those ambitious princes should seek to deprive 
the Swiss of their charters and grants. 

Their spirit is expressed by Schiller in "Wilhelm 
Tell," when the delegates from the Cantons, assembling 
on the "Riitli," pledge to one another: 

We will be 
One single fold of brothers, in no need 
Will sunder, nor no danger. 

We will be 
Free, as our fathers were, and rather death 
Than life in shameful bondage! 

We will set 
In God Most High our trust. We will not fear 
The might of man to hurt us! 

20 



But the Swiss were not the only ones who had felt 
alarm at the rapid strides with which the Hapsburgs 
were enforcing their claims to supreme power. The 
Electors, in whom abided the right of selecting Rudolph's 
successor, disregarded Rudolph's heir, Albrecht, and 
seated Adolph of Nassau on the throne. Albrecht, fail- 
ing of election, had recourse to arms. The Swiss, con- 
sistent with their principles of always siding with the 
lawful Emperor, and likewise, no doubt, strengthened in 
it by the thought that the Hapsburg menace was per- 
sonified in Albrecht, fought in the armies of Adolph. 
He, like Rudolph had done, rewarded them by confirm- 
ing their charters. 

THE TYRANNY OF ALBRECHT. 

But in 1298 Albrecht slew Adolph in single combat 
at Goellheim and seized the throne of the Empire. The 
Swiss fear of what would happen if the Hapsburgs re- 
tained the suzerainty was justified by events. Albrecht 
made haste to aggrandize the House of Hapsburg and 
punish the Swiss for their espousal of Adolph's cause 
at one stroke. He transferred the Cantons from the 
condition of allegiance to the Empire to direct depend- 
ence on his own branch of the Hapsburg family. By 
this act Albrecht aimed to make certain that the Swiss 
would be subject to the Hapsburg regardless of who suc- 
ceeded him as Emperor. 

For ten years Albrecht and his Austrian "Land- 
vogte," or baillies, sent by him to rule the Swiss, op- 
pressed the people of the Cantons. There was much 
revolt and disorder, although a mist of legend makes it 
difficult to ascertain exactly just what events did take 
place. It is quite likely the Swiss met with some suc- 

21 



cess in resisting Albrecht's representatives. The slaying 
of Wolfenschiessen, an Austrian governor, by Baum- 
garten in defense of his wife's honor seems to be a 
fairly well-authenticated indication of the sort of tyranny 
the Swiss were subjected to by their Hapsburg masters 
during the decade Emperor Albrecht reigned. 

But Albrecht's proclivity to tyrannizing over those 
weaker than himself proved to be his own undoing. In 
1308 he was killed by his ward and nephew, Archduke 
John, when the Emperor refused to turn over the Arch- 
duke's inheritance to him. 

THE STRUGGLE BEGINS. 

The answer of the Swiss representative to the appeal 
of Albrecht's widow to help her hunt down the slayer 
of her husband is characteristic to their sturdy self-reli- 
ance and disinclination to curry favor with one high in 
power. They said, in effect, that since John and his con- 
federates were miscreants they would not shelter them 
or actually help them escape, but that inasmuch as Al- 
brecht had wronged and oppressed them they saw no 
reason why they should join in the hunt for the man 
who had relieved them of his tyranny. 

The Electors once more passed by the claims of the 
House of Hapsburg to the imperial throne and chose 
Henry of Luxemburg as Emperor. Henry confirmed 
the charters of the Swiss, but his regime was terminated 
by death in 13 13. From then dated the beginning of 
the three Swiss Cantons as a nation in arms, battling 
to preserve their liberties against the Austrians. 

For this time Hapsburg, though again disappointed in 
the Elector's choice, took it upon itself to chasten the 
Swiss. 

22 



Frederick of Hapsburg and Ludwig of Bavaria were 
the claimants of the imperial throne at the death of 
Henry. After a brief interregnum the Electors chose 
Ludwig. In the meantime, however, adherents of the 
rival claimants had had frequent recourse to violence 
and the inhabitants of Schwyz, who, with those of the 
other Cantons supported Ludwig, had sacked the Monas- 
tery of Einsiedeln, of which Frederick of Hapsburg was 
warden, and had carried off the monks as captives. For 
this the men of Schwyz incurred the ban of the Empire 
and excommunication from the Church, but when Lud- 
wig acceded to the throne he himself removed the ban 
and brought enough influence to bear to have the excom- 
munication Hfted. 

THE BATTLE OF MORGARTEN. 

But apparently Ludwig was not powerful enough to 
protect his faithful against the Austrians who now set 
out to punish the impudent mountaineers. Duke Leopold 
of Austria, younger brother of the disappointed Fred- 
erick, led an army of between 15,000 and 20,000 infantry 
and heavy cavalry to Switzerland, vowing he would an- 
nihilate the peasants. A small body of Swiss, poorly 
armed, but heroic in heart, ambushed the splendid Haps- 
burg army as it filed into the Pass of Morgarten. Hurl- 
ing great boulders and trunks of trees down upon the 
invaders who could not ascend the sHppery sides of the 
mountain, the Swiss fell upon them when they were in 
panic and butchered them. Leopold himself was hard 
put to it to escape with but a remnant of the powerful 
force he had led into with such intentions. 

Emperor Ludwig must have gloated at this victory 
of the Swiss over their common enemy for he unhesi- 

23 



tatingly gave his approval to a renewal of the League 
of 1 29 1. The authority of the Empire was acknowledged 
in the new document, as were the rights of the feudal 
lords, but it was made plain again that no encroachment 
beyond the limit of these rights would be countenanced. 
The next demonstration of the prowess of the Swiss 
mountaineers was given in 1339 when at the battle of 
Laupen they helped thrash the jealous nobles who had 
moved to attack the free imperial city of Bern. 

THE LEAGUE EXPANDS. 

By 1353 the League of the Cantons had grown from 
the original three — Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden — to 
eight. Lucerne entered the League in 1332, Zurich in 
135 1, Glarus and Zug in 1352 and Bern in 1353. 

Lucerne had long been the market place of the people 
of the three Forest Cantons, consequently she was bound 
to them by ties that made her accession to the League 
easy. Under the rule of the Murbach Abbey, Lucerne 
had enjoyed a large degree of self-govrnment, but, in 
1291, the Abbey found itself in financial difficulties and 
sold the town of Lucerne to the Hapsburgs. For more 
than forty years the people of Lucerne chafed under the 
Austrian yoke, and in 1332 saw their opportunity to 
throw it off in joining Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. 

Zurich had enjoyed unexampled power and prosperity 
under Burgomaster Brun, who had made himself dic- 
tator by placing himself at the head of the common 
citizens and crushing the nobles. Brun, however, was 
not antagonistic toward Austria, in fact he rather favored 
the Hapsburgs. So, in the alliance Zurich entered into 
with the other Cantons in 1351, it was provided that 
she might make treaties with other states outside the 

24 



League. Zurich began to extend the territory of the 
Federation by conquest. In November, her forces in- 
vaded Glarus and conquered it. It has been always sus- 
pected that the people of Glarus permitted themselves to 
be conquered, for they also had previously fallen under 
the Hapsburg rule. 

In any event the following spring they themselves 
routed an Austrian force that was sent to redeem the 
territory, and in June, 1352, Glarus was admitted into 
the League. 

Zug was surrounded by territory of the Federation 
after the admission of Glarus, and the Cantons con- 
sidered it necessary that she become one of them. They 
sent a Federal force to besiege the town of Zug which 
surrendered June 2y, 1352. In spite of her resistance, 
Zug was taken in as a full-fledged member of the League. 

Bern had held the Cantons in high regard ever since 
1339 when, at the Battle of Laupen, the city had been 
rescued from a besieging force of some powerful nobles 
by the arrival of six thousand soldiers from the League. 
Bern had grown to great military importance during her 
years of warfare with the surrounding feudal lords, but 
she herself had a thoroughly aristocratic form of gov- 
ernment. After the Battle of Laupen, Austria, anxious 
to obtain so potent an ally, induced Bern to make a 
treaty with her. This alliance lasted ten years. In 1353, 
following the Peace of Brandenburg, Bern joined the 
League of the Cantons, raising its number to eight. 

But it must not be supposed that haughty Hapsburg 
had looked on unconcerned while the Swiss Confederacy 
was being augmented and strengthened by these new ac- 
cessions. Full well did Austria realize that the motive 
underlying this steadily growing union of the Cantons 

25 



was that of lifting a barrier against her own expansion. 
In 1332 Austria had protested against Lucerne joining 
the Confederacy and when, nineteen years later, Zurich 
followed suit, she had recourse to action. 

AUSTRIA RENEWS WAR ON THE LEAGUE. 

In 1354 the Hapsburg princes brought to bear on 
the Empire sufficient influence to obtain its assistance, 
and a combined force of Austrian and imperial troops 
besieged Zurich. But a change of policy soon caused 
the withdrawal of the Empire's forces and the siege per- 
force was abandoned. Another unsuccessful attempt of 
the Austrians in 1368 to crush the sturdy Swiss was fol- 
lowed by eighteen years of comparative peace between 
them. 

Duke Leopold IL, grandson of the ill-fated Emperor 
Albrecht, took up in 1386 the ancient quarrel of his 
house. He led six thousand of his finest soldiers against 
Lucerne, and joined battle at Sempach with a poorly 
equipped force of two thousand from the Cantons. The 
Austrian phalanx presented a solid front, and the Swiss 
had nothing more formidable than rude boards to ward 
off the spears of the Hapsburg knights. At this critical 
juncture Arnold Struthan von Winkelried, whose feat 
has reliable historical foundation, dashed to the fore- 
front of his compatriots : 

''Dear and faithful comrades, I will open you a pas- 
sage. Protect my wife and children!" Winkelried 
shouted and raced headlong toward the Austrian lines. 
With arms outstretched he gathered into his own breast 
as many of the lances as he could encompass, broke the 
phalanx and made a lane through which his fellows, in- 
spired to the acme of valor and prowess by his unprece- 

26 



dented sacrifice, charged over his mangled corpse to vic- 
tory. The Austrians were routed, six hundred and fifty- 
six of their chiefest nobles being dead on the field of 
Sempach. 

Two years later the last effort on the part of Austria 
to subdue her doughty little foe was made. At Nafels 
the Swiss, imitating the strategy that had won for their 
forbears at Morgarten in 13 15, administered another 
crushing defeat to the Austrians. From 1338 dates the 
actual and admitted independence of Switzerland as a 
nation. The Swiss celebrated the 500th anniversary of 
their freedom by flocking to Nafels from all corners of 
the Republic on April 5, 1888, to take part in the cere- 
monies the people of Glarus hold there each year. 

In 1389 Austria and the Cantons arranged a seven 
years' peace. This agreement was prolonged subse- 
quently for seventy years. Finally, Austria gave up all 
claims to dominion over Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, 
Lucerne, Zurich, Glarus, Zug and Bern. 

GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE FEDERATION. 

By 1 5 13, 125 years after the Battle of Nafels, the 
number of Cantons in the League had increased from 
eight to thirteen. Freiburg and Solothurn were ad- 
mitted in 1 481 ; Basel and Schaffhausen in 1501, and 
Appenzell in 15 13. 

This extension of the League's territory during the 
15th century was, however, gradual. Some of the States 
eventually admitted to full membership in the Federation 
had, prior to their admission, entered into alliances of 
various sorts with the Cantons. Some of them were in- 
ferior allies such as Appenzell became in 141 1; others 
put themselves under the protection of the League; while 

27 



still another class became, through conquest, subject 
lands. In 1436 Zurich and Schwyz engaged in civil war 
over territory which each claimed to have inherited from 
Emperor Frederick VII. who died in that year. This 
disputed land composed what is now the Canton of 
St. Gall, a considerable part of Graubiinden, Voralberg 
and other territory. The other Cantons aided Schwyz 
and their combined force besieged the city of Zurich. 
Austria saw her opportunity and took up arms against 
the Federation. 

Austria and Zurich combined were no match for the 
League, so France was prevailed upon to join them. 
The Dauphin (later Louis XL) led an army of thirty 
thousand against Basel. 

The Swiss advanced to meet them. One division of 
the Swiss were surrounded on an island in the River 
Birs and annihilated. 

SWISS MILITARY FAME SPREADS. 

What was left of the Swiss force, not over six hun- 
dred men, confronted the French army thirty times their 
number, at the infirmary of St. Jacques. Twice in the 
course of six hours they repulsed furious French attacks 
and twice made heroic sorties themselves. But, finally, 
the French stormed the infirmary walls, rushed in and 
overwhelmed the Swiss in a hand-to-hand conflict. The 
Swiss would not surrender, preferring to die instead. 

The French lost four thousand men in the Battle of 
St. Jacques, and the heroism of the Swiss so impressed 
Louis that he made an honorable peace with them. This 
battle went a long way toward establishing the military 
reputation of the Swiss. 

28 



The civil war between Zurich and the other Cantons 
did not actually end until six years later, when, at the 
Peace of 1450, Zurich abandoned her alliance with Aus- 
tria. The Cantons became reconciled, and the League a 
more cohesive union than ever. 

The Burgundian Wars (1474- 1477) served still 
further to enhance Switzerland's military standing. 
The story of how Louis of France, still mindful of 
St. Jacques, bent all his efforts toward gaining the aid 
of the Swiss in his design to destroy the power of 
Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and how he succeeded 
in attracting them to his cause, is too long a one to be 
related here. 

A force from Bern, Freiburg and Solothurn invaded 
Vaud in 1475. This territory was subject to Savoy, and 
Savoy was an ally of Burgundy. The Swiss took con- 
siderable territory from Savoy, the most important being 
Lower Valais. Charles the Bold proceded to retaliate 
by invading Switzerland with an army of fifty thousand, 
accompanied by heavy artillery. Following some pre- 
Hminary skirmishes he was met by a well-equipped force 
of eighteen thousand Swiss infantry and cavalry at 
Grandson early in March, 1476. Mistaking a maneuver 
of Charles for an order to retreat, at the very moment 
the main body of the Swiss came up to support their 
advance force, the Burgundians were thrown into a panic 
and, to quote a chronicler of the time, "took to their 
heels, and disappeared from sight, as if a whirlwind had 
swept them from the earth." 

SWISS HALT CAREER OF CHARLES THE BOLD. 

In less than two weeks Charles set to work to reas- 
semble his defeated army. The Bernese were on guard 

29 



and fortified their strong outpost, Morat. In June 
Charles laid siege to Morat with twenty-five thousand 
men. The fortress was defended by a garrison of fif- 
teen hundred Swiss under command of Adrian von 
Bubenberg. For two weeks they withstood alone the 
onslaughts of the Burgundians. 

On June 22nd the main army of the League, com- 
prising about ten thousand troops under Hans Wald- 
mann of Zurich, arrived before Morat to relieve their 
beleaguered compatriots. 

The story of the Battle of Morat is in itself a lesson 
in tactics. Their guns on their shoulders, Waldmann's 
soldiers dauntlessly charged the Burgundian artillery. 
Heedless of the heavy fire thinning their ranks, the 
Swiss advanced right up to their foe, drove them from 
their cannon, and then formed themselves into a phalanx 
and charged the Burgundian centre. 

Charles himself was there surrounded by an auxiliary 
force of crack English archers. What ensued was 
slaughter. Charles personally engaged in furious com- 
bat and, before the fight was over, saw fifteen hundred 
of his chief nobles lying dead around him. 

In this critical juncture Bubenberg salHed forth with 
his garrison troops and attacked the Burgundian left 
wing. Simultaneously the force of Lucerne soldiers as- 
saulted the Burgundian centre from the rear. 

Charles' army, terror-stricken, fled in a wild rout. 
For miles the Swiss pursued them, bloody hand-to-hand 
conflicts resulting whenever they overtook their foe. 
Twelve thousand Burgundians were killed that day, many 
fleeing into the lake to drown rather than face a more 
terrible death at the hands of the victorious Swiss. 
Three thousand of the League's soldiers fell. 

30 



Bitterly disappointed and filled with despair, Charles 
took refuge in Morges with a few followers. Bearing 
the rich spoils they had taken from the Burgundian camp, 
the Swiss army returned home, greeted with wild ac- 
claim by the people they had saved from the yoke of 
Charles. To this day the Battle of Morat ranks with 
those of Morgarten and Sempach in the annals of Swiss 
military achievement. 

Duke Rene of Lorraine who had fought in the Swiss 
army against the Burgundians now set about redeeming 
his own province from Charles' grasp. The Burgundian 
ruler, although he had had his fill of fighting the Swiss, 
did not purpose to lose Lorraine. Late in 1476 he ad- 
vanced into that province with a new army and took 
the city of Nancy. 

Duke Rene begged the League to come to his assist- 
ance, but the canny Swiss could not see any advantage in 
such an undertaking. However, Swiss citizens were per- 
mitted to enlist in Rene's army and eight thousand of 
them, under Hans Waldmann, recaptured Nancy in 
January 1477. 

Charles the Bold was himself killed at Nancy. So 
the Swiss, after having started this powerful monarch 
on the road to destruction, were the principal actors in 
the final chapter of his tragic history. 

The net result of the Burgundian campaign was not 
by any means commensurate with the part the Cantons 
had played in breaking up Charles' empire. Vaud was 
returned to Savoy upon payment of a ransom, yet the 
way was opened for the annexation of Vaud to Switzer- 
land later on. Lower Valais and all Freiburg were free 
from the domination of Savoy. 

The most thrilling instance of Swiss military prowess, 

31 



and one that spread its fame throughout Italy, was the 
Battle of Giornico in 1478 where a force of only six 
hundred Swiss defeated a Milanese army of fifteen thou- 
sand. This battle was the culmination of three-quarters 
of a century of warfare between the Milanese and the 
Forest Cantons. It laid the foundation for the subse- 
quent acquisition of Ticino, an Italian-speaking district, 
by the League early in the sixteenth century. Ticino was 
not admitted as a Canton until 1803. 

BEGINNING OF MERCENARY SERVICE. 

Though the Battle of Nancy was the fitting climax 
of a glorious record of Swiss miHtary achievement, it at 
the same time inaugurated a far less creditable period. 
For at Nancy Swiss soldiers for the first time engaged 
in mercenary foreign service. They hired themselves 
for services in a war in which their own country had 
refused to participate. For the next three centuries the 
Swiss mercenaries were eagerly sought after by the most 
powerful monarchs in Europe, and though it brought 
added fame to the Swiss as fighting men it did not tend 
to upHft the national character of the League. 

Nevertheless, Switzerland's part in crushing Bur- 
gundy had raised the Confederation high in the esteem 
of the whole world. France, Italy, the Austrians, and 
even England (jealous of the favor in which the Swiss 
held France) made overtures for the League's friend- 
ship. 

CIVIL STRIFE BREAKS OUT. 

Flushed with their victory over the Burgundians and 
somewhat overproud, perhaps, of the praise bestowed 
on them by Europe, Swiss Cantons began to wrangle 
among themselves. Disputes arose over the division of 

32 



the spoils taken in the Burgundian War. Zurich, Bern 
and Lucerne had forged far ahead of the five country 
Cantons in wealth, and power and culture, and insisted 
they should receive the lion's share of the booty. These 
three cities had thirty-five thousand soldiers in the 
League's army as against about fifteen thousand supplied 
by the other Cantons, and it was suggested that the 
spoils be divided on this basis. 

The three Cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, 
anxious to maintain their prestige as the founders of the 
League, took the initiative in resisting the cities. 

Meanwhile, Freiburg and Solothurn had appHed for 
admission to the League as Cantons, and this provoked 
a new occasion for dispute. Finally a Federal Diet was 
called to convene at Stanz in Unterwalden on December 
i8, 1481. Matters had come almost to a breaking point, 
and it was hoped that at Stanz some way would be found 
to settle all the diflferences. 

But, when the representatives of the Cantons met, 
dissension broke out worse than ever. When it seamed 
almost that civil war was imminent, the Pastor of Stanz 
betook himself to the woods where the famous hermit 
Niklaus von der Flue lived in a cave and was in the 
habit of advising emissaries sent to him by rulers from 
all parts of Europe when they were confronted by vex- 
ing problems. 

The hermit sent back such sound counsel to Stanz 
that the representatives of the Cantons composed all their 
differences and civil strife was averted. 

The most important decision arrived at in their agree- 
ment was to admit Freiburg and Solothurn as full-fledged 
Cantons, thus raising the number of States in the League 
to ten. 

33 



REFORMS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF WALDMANN. 

In passing, some attention- deserves to be devoted to 
Hans Waldmann, who, as Burgomaster of Zurich, left 
an indehble impression on the development of the Swiss 
nation. Born in Zug, Waldmann came to Zurich as a 
youth of sixteen, bought citizenship there and rapidly 
rose to prominence, although he had begun his career 
as a tanner. He was knighted while with the Swiss 
army at Grandson and, it will be remembered, led the 
force of ten thousand Zurich soldiers who played such 
havoc with the Burgundians at Morat. Waldmann had 
urgently advocated the Swiss League going to the aid of 
Rene in Lorraine and, when the Diet turned down the 
proposal, put himself at the head of the eight thousand 
mercenaries who took Nancy. 

Upon his return after the war he was made Burgo- 
master and devoted himself to increasing the power of 
the craftsmen's guilds and lessening that of the nobles. 
Going further than his predecessor Brun, who had equal- 
ized the representation of the guilds and nobles in the 
council, Waldmann established the guilds in the majority. 
He raised Zurich to the zenith of her power and often 
styled himself King of the Swiss. Emperor and Pope 
realized his power and on more than one occasion bowed 
to his dictates. 

Following an uprising of the peasants of the country 
districts around the city of Zurich, Waldmann was exe- 
cuted in 1489. His most lasting accomplishments had 
been to restore the liberties of the people of Zurich and 
to establish its authority over the surrounding territory. 

SWISS FREED FROM CONTROL OF EMPIRE. 
The Swabian War, occurring at the close of the fif- 
teenth century, resulted in Switzerland finally breaking 

34 




.Mm ^^ 



^ I 





1 * 
1 








her bonds of allegiance to the empire. The Emperor 
Maximilian, who was a Hapsburg, had commanded the 
Swiss to join the Swabian Bund, organized by German 
nobles. The Swiss, Hke Americans three hundred years 
later, objected to putting themselves under a government 
in which they would not be represented, and refused. 
About this time the people of Graubiinden, fearing Aus- 
trian aggression, asked to be taken in under the protec- 
tion of the League. Their request was granted and the 
Tyrolese state made war on the Swiss as a result, seek- 
ing and receiving the help of the Swabian Bund. Battles 
were soon being fought all along the Rhine from Basel 
to Graubiinden. 

Forces of Emperor Maximilian were badly defeated 
and on ten occasions the Swiss routed the Swabians, 
only suflFering defeat twice themselves. 

The story of the Swabian War is rich with heroic 
exploits and military accomplishments. It went a long 
way in still further adding to the prestige of the Swiss 
as a people in arms. 

By the treaty of Basel in September, 1499, peace was 
reestablished and the League increased its territory con- 
siderably. 

CANTONS INCREASED TO THIRTEEN. 

In 1 501 Basel and Schaffhausen were admitted as 
Cantons. Basel, in particular, was an important acquisi- 
tion for she was a thriving center of trade, was very 
rich and her university had been a noted seat of learning 
since its establishment in 1460. 

Appenzell was admitted as the thirteenth Canton in 
15 1 3. The Prince-Abbot of St. Gall, who had ruled Ap- 
penzell, protested vigorously, but the League did not 

35 



heed his objections in this opportunity to increase its 
own strength. No further additions were made to the 
League until the Napoleonic era at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century. 

SWISS FREE AND THEIR FAVOR SOUGHT. 

The treaty of Basel had the effect of freeing the 
Cantons from the control of the Empire even though it 
did not specifically provide for that. Thenceforth the 
League was virtually a sovereign nation, although it was 
not until the Peace of Westphalia, a century and a half 
later, that its autonomy was formally acknowledged by 
Austria. 

The Swabian War had so impressed neighboring 
states with the superiority of Swiss arms, that Wur- 
temberg and Bavaria hastened to conclude alliances with 
the League. Even Emperor Maximilian made the strong- 
est protestations of friendship for the sturdy Alpine 
people who had frustrated his designs of conquest. 

Charles VIIL, upon his accession to the throne of 
France, enlisted the aid of the Swiss in his campaign to 
conquer Naples. This was the beginning of Swiss merce- 
nary service in Italy, first for the monarchs of France 
and then for the Pope. Charles took Naples largely 
through the assistance the Swiss gave him, and his suc- 
cessor, Louis XIL, utilized their military strength to con- 
quer Milan. 

Louis had promised to cede Bellinzona to the League 
in return for its aid in the Italian War, but did not keep 
his word. 

Consequently when Matthaeus Schinner, a priest of 
Upper Valais who had risen to the rank of Cardinal, 
urged them to join in a five-years' alliance with Pope 

36 



Julius II. for the purpose of driving the French from 
Italy, the Swiss readily accepted the invitation. 

SWISS DRIVE FRENCH FROM ITALY. 

In the service of the Papal See the Swiss mercenaries 
retook Milan in 1512 from their former allies. Zwingli, 
the great reformer, tells how the ambassador of the other 
great powers appeared as suppliants before the victori- 
ous Swiss, pleading for consideration in the expected 
division of the Duchy of Milan. But the Swiss decided 
to return the Duchy to Maximilian Sforza, from whom 
the French had taken it. Out of gratitude, Sforza ceded 
Lugano, Locarno and other territory to the League. 

At Novaro, in 1513, the Swiss, still in the service of 
the Pope, decisively defeated Louis's attempt to regain 
Milan, and when Francis I. ascended the throne of 
France, he thought it would be discreet to secure the 
neutrality of the League before endeavoring to redeem 
the lost Italian possessions of his house. Bern, Freiburg 
and Solothurn agreed to the proposals of Francis and 
recalled their troops from Italy. 

When the other Cantons were on the verge of doing 
the same thing, Cardinal Schinner induced them to 
change their minds, and the prelate himself led the Swiss 
troops to battle at Marignano on September 13th, 15 15. 

From morning until night the Swiss battled with the 
French without any decisive advantages accruing to 
either. At dark the opposing forces rested on their 
arms, only to renew the conflict more furiously at the 
dawn of the next day. For the first time in his life the 
Chevalier Bayard was put to flight, by the Swiss war- 
riors. A Swiss attack began the second day's battle 
and several times it seemed that victory was about to 

27 



be theirs, but the French had opened nearby dykes, flood- 
ing the ground occupied by their opponents. To add to 
the seriousness of the situation, a large force of Vene- 
tians arrived at this juncture and threatened to cut off 
the Swiss retreat. Under the circumstances there was 
nothing to do but retire, and this the Swiss army did 
in such perfect order, taking their wounded, guns and 
banners with them, that Francis would not permit his 
troops to pursue them, so filled with admiration was he 
for their splendid military organization. 

Though the Italian wars had been characterized by 
mercenary service rather than by national spirit of the 
Swiss, the League had made through them important 
acquisitions, namely, Ticino, Valtellina and Chiavenna. 

THE END OF A GLORIOUS PERIOD. 

But the day of Swiss military ascendancy in Europe 
was over. True, the defeat at Marignano was almost as 
glorious as a victory and its result was to join the Swiss 
and French in the closest bonds of friendship. Yet, 
from that time on, France, not the Swiss League, was 
supreme. 

By the time the number of Cantons in the League 
had reached thirteen their governmental affairs had be- 
come fairly well defined. Each urban Canton was ruled 
by a Grand Council, while the country Cantons were 
governed in most instances by their "Landsgemeinden." 
The latter were pure democracies, the Landsgemeinde 
having its root among the ancient Greeks, and being a 
development of the "Volksversammlung" of the old Ger- 
man tribes, an assemblage of the entire people to decide 
important questions. The council of the city Cantons, 
on the other hand, was more aristocratic, being made 

38 



up of representatives of the different classes in the 
community. 

The Landsgemeinde exists to this day in Uri, Appen- 
zell, Glarus, Obwalden and Nidwalden. Presided over by 
the Landammann, the citizens assemble on the last Sunday 
in April, hold religious service, march in a parade and 
then proceed to inspect the yearly accounts of the Can- 
tons, elect magistrates and other officials for the ensuing 
year, and amend and enact laws. 

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION. 

The source of central authority was the Diet, or 
Tagsatzung. Each Canton had one representative in the 
Tagsatzung which met by turn at each of the principal 
towns. The position of Canton Director was usually 
held by the representative from Zurich, and he presided 
over the sessions. Ambassadors from foreign powers 
frequently attended the sessions of the Diet, especially 
after the friendship of the Swiss became a thing so much 
to be desired. 

During the fifteenth century the Tagsatzung often 
took on the aspect of an international congress. But 
from 1 5 13 to the time of its abolishment in 1848 it ex- 
erted less influence on European affairs. 

All during the sixteenth century Switzerland was 
swept by the religious strife that characterized the Ref- 
ormation. 

Zwingli, Calvin and Bullinger were reformers whose 
names were well known in all Europe. Though inter- 
esting from a historical standpoint, the events of that 
time bear little significance to the Republic's military 
development. 

39 



INFLUENCE OF FRENCH ABSOLUTISM. 

In the seventeenth century Switzerland fell strongly 
under the influence of Louis XIV. of France, the high 
priest of absolutism. Indeed, the Swiss Cantons were 
in danger of becoming subject to Louis, and their own 
government began to take on an aristocratic tinge. 

Switzerland succeeded in remaining neutral during 
the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), although her ter- 
ritory was invaded on several occasions by the belliger- 
ents, especially the Swedes. 

The Peace of Westphalia, which closed the Thirty 
Years' War, formally ratified the independence of the 
Swiss Cantons. This recognition of Swiss autonomy 
was chiefly due to the eflforts of Burgomaster Wettstein 
of Basel, and Henry, Count of Orleans, representative 
of France at the peace congress. This service tended 
to still further unite the Swiss and the French in bonds 
of friendship. 

Swiss mercenaries were some of the best soldiers 
Louis XIV, had, and Swiss envoys, to their shame, fre- 
quently permitted themselves to be bribed by Louis. In 
1663 the Swiss alliance with France was renewed and 
its terms were all in favor of France. 

However, the Swiss had been giving refuge to the 
Huguenots and other religious exiles from France, 
Geneva especially bidding them welcome. Educated to 
the real character of Louis by these exiles, the Swiss 
gradually began to feel ashamed of their dealings with 
the monarch, and, in 1689, returning envoys to Paris 
were greeted as heroes in Bern and Zurich because they 
had rejected Louis' bribes. In the course of time the 
alliance with France became a dead letter, although 
Swiss mercenary service continued to run its evil course. 

40 



STRUGGLES FOR CLASS SUPREMACY. 

The eighteenth century in Switzerland is chiefly 
featured by the attempts of the aristocratic classes to 
attain supremacy in the Cantons, even asserting their 
claims to overrule the "Landsgemeinden" in the country 
Cantons. 

The peasants were oppressed and many uprisings took 
place. At the same time the old religious disputes con- 
tinued to rage. Bern was the stronghold of Swiss aris- 
tocracy when Napoleon Bonaparte began to make his 
power felt in the lands surrounding France. The French 
Revolution itself had had marked effect in Switzerland, 
raising the desire for ''liberty and equality" in the breasts 
of Alpine peasants. On the other hand, the massacre 
of the Swiss Guards, who defended French royalty at 
the Tuileries against the Paris mob, and were slaught- 
ered rather than surrender, aroused indignation in Swit- 
zerland. 

NAPOLEON TURNS TO SWISS AFFAIRS. 

Meanwhile, the Helvetic Club had been organized in 
Paris by discontented Swiss bent on freeing their native 
land from the rule of the aristocracy. This club at- 
tracted the attention of Napoleon and the Directory, for 
they saw in it an opportunity to erect in Switzerland a 
government that would be in sympathy with and sub- 
ject to the French Republic. 

Bern, Freiburg and Solothurn stood against this 
Napoleonic influence. Peter Ochs of Basel, a brilliant 
man who had fallen under the domination of Bonaparte, 
was called to Paris to draft a new constitution for 
Switzerland, Napoleon having determined to dictate its 
governmental affairs. In January 1798 the Tagsatzung 

41 



met and vainly tried to bolster up Swiss national spirit, 
but it was useless to try to stem the coming storm. The 
Tagsatzung adjourned in confusion on February ist. 

Bonaparte sent Brune in command of a French force 
against Bern. Solothurn and Freiburg, Bern's chief 
supporters, surrendered to Brune, and Bern had no help 
from the other Cantons. The Bernese put up a desper- 
ate resistance and, indeed, scored some preliminary vic- 
tories over the French, but the latter entered the city 
on March 5th. 

The Directory did away with the old Swiss League 
and established in its place the **One and Undivided 
Helvetic Republic," compelling the adoption of the con- 
stitution drafted by Ochs. The Cantons were re-divided, 
twenty-two of them in all being established. Aarau, 
Lucerne and Bern in turn were made capitals of the 
new Republic. Legislative power was vested in a Senate 
and Grand Council, and executive authority in a Di- 
rectory of five members and a Ministry of four. 

BONAPARTE'S SUBJECTION OF SWITZERLAND. 

The city Cantons submitted to the new government, 
but the country districts made stout resistance. The 
Forest Cantons, especially, opposed French domination, 
and the men of Schwyz, under the young officer Reding, 
gained noteworthy victories over the French at Schin- 
dellegi, Arth and Morgarten. 

On September 9, 1798, a French force of sixteen 
thousand under Schauenburg was met by two thousand 
Swiss near Stanz. Even the women and children helped 
fight the invaders and held them off for two days. But 
after a terrible slaughter Stanz itself was taken and, 
for the time being, Swiss independence was at an end. 

42 



As a punishment for this resistance Napoleon combined 
the three Forest Cantons and Zug into one, thus redu- 
cing the number to nineteen. 

The *'One and Undivided Helvetic Republic" endured 
for five years until 1803. The Napoleonic idea of com- 
pletely centralizing the Swiss government was doomed 
to failure from the start. The country Cantons lost 
their ''Landsgemeinden," the cities were deprived of 
their council, and the whole scheme of government that 
had been built up through so many generations was 
knocked down at one stroke. 

Nevertheless, many beneficial reforms were instituted 
during the days of the Helvetic Republic, and new ideas 
were born that crystallized into reality a half-century 
later. The residents of subject lands were granted equal 
rights of citizenship with those of the rest of the state, 
limitations on trade were lifted and freedom of worship, 
of the press and speech were guaranteed. 

Yet these guarantees of liberty were violated as 
creatures of the French gained control of the Swiss 
Directory. Among these latter was Ochs, the tool of 
Napoleon. Bonaparte's design was to put Switzerland 
into complete submission to himself. He commanded 
the Swiss to furnish eighteen thousand soldiers for his 
army. This levy caused an uproar in Switzerland, thou- 
sands of the Swiss hiring themselves as mercenaries in 
the service of Napoleon's foes. Numerous patriots like 
Reding and Lavater were thrown into prison. 

ALLIES INVADE SWITZERLAND. 

Napoleon compelled the Helvetic Republic to enter 
into an offensive and defensive alliance with France. 
This, of course, destroyed Switzerland's status as a 

43 



neutral state and she was straightway invaded by the 
Austrian and Russian, enemies of Bonaparte. 

This situation naturally brings to mind the splendidly 
immune condition in which Switzerland finds herself to- 
day. In 1798 her neutrality could be wiped out at the 
whim of a tyrant; in 1914 her own efficient military sys- 
tem was enough to defend her neutrality against the 
designs of any or all the great powers of Europe. 

The conservatives among the Swiss welcomed the 
invaders as joyously as the radicals had greeted the 
French liberators. Switzerland was occupied and turned 
into a military camp. But the Austro-Russian alpine 
campaign was a failure. Napoleon's generals succeeded 
in driving them from the country, and the Helvetic Re- 
public still stood. 

Napoleon kept his army of occupation in Switzer- 
land, and the unmeasured looting of the Swiss people 
that was carried on to provision the troops caused a 
revulsion of feeling against the French and the govern- 
ment of the Helvetic Republic. The Swiss Directory 
was overthrown four times in uprisings during the five 
years up to 1803. 

The most serious disturbance took place right after 
the French troops were withdrawn in July, 1802. The 
members of the Helvetic government were forced to flee 
from their seat at Bern to Lausanne. At this juncture 
Napoleon offered to act as "mediator," and Marshal Ney 
led forty thousand soldiers to Switzerland to enforce 
order. 

Napoleon evidently realized that the Helvetic Re- 
pubHc, as he had constituted it, could not endure. The 
majority of the Cantons bitterly resented having been 
deprived of all self-government for the purpose of com- 

44 



pletely centralizing authority. Early in 1803 Napoleon 
summoned sixty-three delegates from the Cantons to 
confer with him at Paris. Though forty-eight of these 
delegates were pronounced Federalists, the Emperor 
showed no inclination to ride rough-shod over the de- 
sires of the conservatives. 

THE MEDIATION ACTS. 

Under the plan finally adopted, central authority was 
maintained in the creation of a Tagsatzung with wide 
powers, but at the same time the *'Landsgemeinden" 
were restored to the Forest Cantons, the Councils to 
the cities, and those districts that had been subject lands 
before the day of the Helvetic Republic were granted 
full self-government. 

Graubiinden, St. Gall, Thurgau, Aargau, Vaud and 
Ticino were created Cantons and admitted on an equal 
footing with the other thirteen. The Cantons were for- 
bidden to wage wars one with another, or to enter into 
separate alliances. Mercenary wars were strictly pro- 
hibited and Napoleon saw to it that there was a provi- 
sion in the new constitution preventing the Federal gov- 
ernment from maintaining any larger military force than 
was necessary to preserve mere law and order within 
the country. Cantons whose population exceeded one 
hundred thousand were given two votes each in the 
Tagsatzung, while the smaller Cantons each had one vote. 

Regardless of Napoleon's aims, the Mediation act 
period (1803-1815) was one of peace for Switzerland, 
while the rest of Europe was drenched in blood. The 
effect was a distinct gain for the alpine nation. Schools, 
agricultural colleges and institutions of letters, art, music 
and science, developing noteworthy novelists, poets, mu- 

45 



sicians, artists and educators, sprang up. Pestalozzi and 
his disciples accomplished .much of their great work of 
educational advancement during this period. Escher, an 
aristocrat who devoted his talents, wealth, and finally 
sacrificed his life in the interests of the poorer classes, 
constructed the canal between Walensee and the lake 
of Zurich, thus draining twenty-eight thousand acres of 
swamp land. The introduction of machinery caused 
trade to take long steps forward and Switzerland be- 
came a hive of industry. Spinning mills, forerunners 
of Switzerland's great industry of today, had their be- 
ginning at about this time in St. Gall. 

Nevertheless, there was still much cause for com- 
plaint. Napoleon compelled the Swiss to furnish sixteen 
thousand soldiers for constant service in his army, and 
this levy and the taxes imposed fell hard on the peasants. 
Toward 1812 signs of rebellion had culminated in open 
defiance of Napoleon by Reding and other patriots on 
the floor of the Tagsatzung. But any plans of punish- 
ment Napoleon may have had in mind vanished with 
his disastrous Russian campaign. Then followed the 
Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon's abdication and the entry 
of the Allies into Paris. The Swiss, satisfied with their 
form of government, although not at the way in which 
it had always been administered, refused to join forces 
with the Holy Alliance. 

NAPOLEON'S WORK UNDONE. 

The little Swiss army of fifteen thousand was placed 
on the border in the hope that the country's neutrality 
might be protected, but when one hundred and seventy 
thousand Germans and Austrians appeared on their 
march to Paris the idea of resistance was abandoned. 

46 



The Allies did little damage to the country itself on their 
way through, but on December 29, 181 3, the Tagsatzung 
was compelled to abolish itself, and Napoleon's Media- 
tion Act was wiped out. 

By the peace of Paris, May 31, 1814, the independ- 
ence of Switzerland was ratified by the conquerors of 
Bonaparte. 

With the overthrow of the Mediation Act, civil strife, 
the old warfare between conservatives and radicals, broke 
out anew in Switzerland. Bern reasserted her claim 
to sovereignty over Vaud and Aargau, and was sup- 
ported in her contention by Freiburg, Lucerne, Solo- 
thurn and the Forest Cantons. Zurich took the lead in 
standing out for maintaining the existence of the full 
nineteen Cantons. The result was, there were for a time 
two governments in Switzerland, each with a separate 
Diet. 

Finally a joint congress was arranged to meet at 
Zurich and endeavor to reach a compromise. This meet- 
ing is known as the Long Diet, for it sat for more than 
a year, and was characterized by constant and acrimoni- 
ous bickerings. 

The constitution for a reunited Switzerland was still 
incomplete in many important particulars when it was 
submitted to the Vienna Congress, met to rearrange the 
map of Europe, for approval. 

VIENNA CONGRESS TAKES A HAND. 

The representatives of the allied nations saw in an 
independent Switzerland a strong barrier against France, 
so they set about with a will adjusting the points of 
dispute among the Cantons. Bern was moUified with 
the addition of some extra territory, and surrendered 

47 



her claims to Vaud and Aargau. Valais, Geneva and 
Neuchatel were added as Cantons, bringing the total up 
to twenty-two, where it stands today. 

The constitution of 1815 restored many of the privi- 
leges of the aristocratic classes, and several of the Can- 
tons were given sovereign power at the expense of the 
central government, although a Tagsatzung composed of 
one representative from each Canton was provided for. 
The cities were permitted to largely retain their su- 
premacy over the people of surrounding country districts. 

For thirty-three years Switzerland was governed un- 
der the constitution given her by the Congress of Vienna. 
This period splits into two divisions, that from 181 5 to 
1830, and 1830-1848. During the first fifteen years the 
great mass of the Swiss people passively submitted to 
the politicial reaction that had set in. 

But even then a number of the apostles of liberalism 
were at work, political clubs were organized and the 
seeds planted that were later to blossom into the dem- 
ocratic Switzerland of today. But if political progress 
was at a standstill, considerable advancement was made 
along military lines during the years following 181 5. The 
central school for army officers was estabHshed at Thun, 
and the Federal army was increased from fifteen thou- 
sand to thirty thousand men. 

EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1830. 

The French Revolution of 1830 had a marked in- 
fluence on Switzerland. The yearnings for equality 
which had been smothered at the beginning of the cen- 
tury began to show themselves anew all over Europe, 
Switzerland included. The Cantons, with the exception 
of Glarus, Uri, and Unterwalden, proceeded to revise 

48 



their fundamental laws. Even Bern, old stronghold of 
the reactionaries, grew progressive. Zurich made her 
Council truly representative by giving the citizens of her 
country districts two-thirds of its membership. Uni- 
versities and high schools were founded throughout the 
country, and material progress was made in learning 
and culture. The eighteen-year period following 1830 
was one of regeneration, and equipped the Swiss people 
to take advantage of their opportunity in 1848. 

The only discordant note during these years was the 
warfare that broke out again between Catholic and 
Protestants. So intense did the religious controversy 
become that the Protestant Cantons formed a league 
among themselves known as the Siebner-Concordat. In 
opposition to this the Catholic League was organized 
by those Cantons which had not embraced the Reforma- 
tion doctrines. An attempt in 1832 to strengthen the 
power of the Federal government was defeated in the 
Diet, largely because of these religious animosities. 

SONDERBUND WAR. 

The trouble culminated in the Sonderbund War of 
1847. This struggle was essentially one between the old 
forces of reaction and those of liberalism, but it was 
intensified by the religious squabbles between Catholics 
and Protestants. Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Frei- 
burg and Valais had formed a new League, standing 
for the things that the old Catholic League had repre- 
sented. In 1847 the Protestants gained majority in the 
Diet, and that body ordered the six Cantons to dissolve 
their Bund. Civil war was inevitable. France, Austria, 
and Germany sided with the Sonderbund. England 
favored the Protestants and rendered them a great ser- 

49 



vice by delaying action against the Swiss by the Powers. 
The Sonderbund prepared for the struggle, raising an 
army of seventy-five thousand. The fact that General 
Salis-Soglio, a Protestant from Biinden, was placed in 
command of the Sonderbund indicates that religious ani- 
mosity was not, after all, the chief cause of the strife. 

The Diet raised ninety-eight thousand soldiers and 
placed General Dufour of Geneva in command. Dufour 
was an exceptionally able tactician and was of the old 
Napoleonic school of soldiers. It was under his direction 
that the Swiss topographical maps, still in existence, 
and the first of their kind, were made. Dufour's prose- 
cution of the campaign was so successful that it only 
lasted twenty-five days, from November 4th to Novem- 
ber 29th. Losses were not great on either side and 
Dufour was hailed as the national hero, even by the 
people of the Sonderbund, who had become easily re- 
conciled to their defeat. 

No more striking proof of the real unity of the Swiss 
people could he had than the fact that hut two months 
after the close of this civil war, when revolution held 
sway throughout all the neighhoring states and Switzer- 
land zvas threatened with invasion, Catholic and Protes- 
tant, reactionary and liheral, the men from the cities and 
those from the country districts, rallied to the colors 
with equal patriotic zeal, their only rivalry to show zvhich 
would do the most for their native land. The same 
splendid spirit of "one for all and all for one" has pre- 
vailed in Switzerland ever since. 



50 




The Picturesque City of Thun, with the Castle. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



II. SINCE 1848. IMPORTANT LEGISLATION. 

With the splendid example of self-immolation of the 
once warring faiths and parties behind them, small 
wonder the representatives of the Swiss who met at Bern 
in 1848 to frame a fundamental law for a reunited 
people were imbued with a high resolve that lives even 
to this day in the document that stands as the bulwark 
of Swiss freedom, law and justice. 

In many respects the Swiss Constitution of 1848 is 
modelled after the Constitution of the United States. 
That it is, generally speaking, more democratic and pro- 
gressive then our Constitution may be laid to the fact 
that it was drafted three-quarters of a century later than 
was ours. 

STRUCTURE OF SWISS GOVERNMENT. 

The Federal law-making body consists of the ''Na- 
tionalrat" corresponding to our House of Representa- 
tives, to which districts of 20,000 inhabitants elect each 
one member; and the "Stdnderat," taking the place of 
the American Senate, in which each Canton is entitled 
to two members. 

Laws must be adopted separately by the two cham- 
bers. The two houses meet jointly — Federal Assembly — 

51 



to elect members of the Federal Council, Federal Court 
and the General of the Army. 

The executive authority is placed in the hands of 
a body of seven men, called "Bundesrat" (Federal 
Council) . 

The chairman of this body is the President of the 
Republic. He is elected for one year and cannot suc- 
ceed himself. The triennial election of the members of 
the Bundesrat is in practice a mere reelection, unless a 
member resigns or dies during the years of administra- 
tion, necessitating the election of a new member. 

The business of the Federal Council is arranged in 
seven departments, with one member as the head of 
each. 

The Federal Council and Federal Assembly meet in 
Bern, the capital of the Swiss Republic. 

The highest Federal judicial authority is the "Bun- 
desgericht" {Federal Court) consisting of 24 judges and 
9 alternates. It sits in Lausanne. 

The continued successful existence of a democracy 
demands that every citizen take a thorough interest in 
public affairs. The average Swiss considers he is in duty 
bound to interest himself in the affairs of the State 
to such a degree that he uses his ballot at each election. 
In many a Canton the right of vote is coupled with the 
duty to do so, and failure to vote is penalized. 

Several times since 1848 changes in the military arti- 
cles of the constitution have been made and, of course, 
all such changes had to be submitted to a referendum. 
Not always were the proposed measures acted favorably 
upon by the people, and in some instances they had to 
be brought to a vote time and time again, frequently 
greatly modified, until the people finally enacted them. 

52 



Because the people had a chance to adopt or reject 
laws pertaining to defense, the Swiss military system is 
a practical and popular one. 

CANTONAL GOVERNMENT. 

In the Cantons the executive power is exercised by 
a body of from five to seven men, instead of a Governor 
as in our States, called the "Cantonsrat." 

The legislature of each Canton has but a single 
chamber, and is called the "Grosse Rat." 

Switzerland has three official languages, German. 
French and Italian. German is spoken by 2,500,000 
inhabitants of the Cantons of Bern, Lucerne, Zurich, 
Basel, Solothurn, Zug, Aargau, Thurgau, St. Gallen, 
Appenzell, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, Schaff- 
hausen and the greater part of Graubiinden. French 
by 800,000 inhabitants of the Cantons of Geneva, Vaud, 
Valais, Neuchatel, and Freiburg; Italian by 300,000 in- 
habitants of the Canton Ticino and part of Graubiinden 
and Valais. 

The official language in the German-speaking Cantons 
is German, in the French-speaking is French, and in 
the Canton Ticino is Italian. 

In debates of the national government bodies any 
one of the three languages can be used, as almost every 
representative masters all of them. 

TRANSITION FROM PURE DEMOCRACY. 

We have seen how, in the early development of the 
Swiss Republic the country Cantons were governed 
through "Landsgemeinden," assemblages of all the male 
adults. To this day, in Uri and in other remote sections 
of Switzerland the Landsgemeinde still exists, but for 

53 



the most part this form of pure democracy has given 
way to representative govei:nment. The transition was 
made necessary by growth of population and the more 
complex affairs of the modern nation. 

But the Swiss, though realizing they could not con- 
tinue to govern themselves through cantonal assemblages, 
were chary about delegating to their representatives 
power so absolute that they, themselves, would have no 
direct voice in public affairs. Hence, the Initiative and 
Referendum were incorporated as fundamental princi- 
ples of Switzerland's government. 

The American people are witnesses to the evils that 
spring up in so-called representative government where, 
because the people have no curb upon their officials 
during their terms of office, they cease to be representa- 
tive of the people. Professional politicians, political 
bosses and private interests exercise greater control over 
many a public official than do the voters who placed 
him in office and who pay the taxes to run the 
government. 

SOUND RADICALISM OF THE SWISS. 

It was, then, a critical juncture in Switzerland's 
national development when conditions necessitated that 
simple democracy be replaced by the representative form 
of government. No doubt, had the molders of her desti- 
ny had less faith in the ability of the people to rule 
themselves, had they been timid conservatives instead 
of sound radicals, the Initiative and Referendum would 
not have been established, and the plant of Swiss re- 
publicanism would have been handicapped in its growth. 

Every Canton except Freiburg has some form of the 
Referendum in its constitution. On certain questions 

54 



the Referendum is compulsory; that is, proposed legis- 
lation coming under the prescribed class must be ap- 
proved by a vote of the people before it becomes law. 
In other cases the people have the option, by petition, 
of preventing the final enactment of a measure until 
they have voted on it. 

The constitution of the republic provides for both 
compulsory and optional referendum on Federal legis- 
lation. Proposed constitutional amendments must be 
submitted to a popular vote and adopted before they 
are in effect. If the two houses of the Federal legis- 
lature agree upon a constitutional amendment it is then 
submitted to a vote of the people of all the Cantons, 
and if it receives a majority of the entire popular vote 
and also receives a majority in twelve of the twenty- 
two Cantons, it is incorporated in the constitution. 
However, if the two houses cannot agree on the ques- 
tion of an amendment, or if 50,000 voters petition for 
an amendment in the absence of any action by either 
house, then it is submitted to the people to decide 
whether there shall be any amendment at all. If they 
vote in the affirmative the Federal legislature is dis- 
solved, new elections are held, the Executive Council 
prepares the amendment and submits it to the incoming 
legislature who, in turn, places it before the people for 
final adoption or rejection at a Referendum. 

THE REFERENDUM. 

Article 89 of the constitution provides for the exer- 
cise of the optional Referendum on Federal laws. A 
petition signed by 30,000 voters requires the submission 
of any proposed Federal statute, not of an immediately 
urgent nature, to a Referendum. The same course must 

55 



be taken when eight Cantons, through their legislative 
bodies, demand a popular vote upon any proposed Feder- 
al enactment. 

Cantonal Referendum systems are of wide variety, 
being hardly identical in any two states. They range 
all the way from the system in vogue in Valais, where 
only propositions entailing an expenditure of more than 
$12,000 are submitted to the Referendum, to that in 
the half-Canton of Basselland where almost every 
measure passed by the legislature must be submitted to 
a vote of the people. 

A rude form of the Referendum existed in the Can- 
tons of Graubiinden and Valais in the sixteenth century. 
The modern Referendum was first adopted by the Can- 
ton of St. Gall in 1830. It was called the Veto, and 
provided that proposed laws should be submitted to 
a popular vote whenever a certain number of citizens 
so demanded. Other Cantons lost no time in adopting 
this innovation and it soon became almost universal 
throughout the republic. 

In America the Referendum is considered by many 
to be a revolutionary and extremely radical idea. Radi- 
cal it may be in the direction of returning to the people 
real self-government, but its results in Switzerland have 
never been so radical that they have exceeded the bounds 
of sound common sense in government. The Refer- 
endum in Switzerland has been radical in its prevention 
of public extravagances ; in the opportunity it has given 
the people who pay the taxes to see to it that their 
money is not squandered in sinecure jobs and graft; but 
that kind of result is deemed unduly radical only by 
those who find no chance for public plunder when the 
people really rule themselves. 



DIRECT GOVERNMENT SUCCESSFUL. 

Insofar as untried innovations, experiments and im- 
practicable measures are concerned, the Swiss people 
have shown themselves as conservative in the exercise 
of the Referendum as any graybeard solon who ever 
sat in a senate. 

The application of the Referendum has been an 
educating force in Switzerland and has trained her citi- 
zens to take an active, thoughtful interest in public af- 
fairs. The people discuss the questions to be put before 
them and, as a rule, vote intelligently upon them, there 
being none of the blind partisan considerations th,at 
influence suffrage for candidates. 

Where the Referendum is in vogue legislators soon 
learn that it is inexpedient as well as useless for them 
to try to enact undesirable laws. For not only will the 
voters, in all probability, kill vicious measures, but the 
very publicity attendant upon a Referendum is sure to 
attract unenviable attention to the officials who sponsored 
the bad law. The natural result is that men in office 
conduct themselves with an eye to the opinion of their 
constituents, and a high type of men, generally speaking, 
are elected to office. 

THE INITIATIVE. 

Seventeen of the twenty-two Swiss Cantons have 
complemented the Referendum with the Initiative. 
Thus, not only can the people themselves prevent bad 
legislation, but they can propose and enact any laws 
they desire which their legislative bodies have not seen 
fit to give them. 

The Canton of Vaud was the pioneer in adopting 
the Initiative in 1845. It was not a success there at 

57 



first because the Referendum was not also in force. The 
Initiative has always been a iailure unless accompanied 
by the Referendum. 

The incorporation into the Federal Constitution in 
1891 of a provision permitting constitutional amend- 
ments to be proposed through the Initiative was a mile- 
stone in the progress of democracy. It was another of 
those radical measures, the radicalism of which con- 
sists of the opportunity they afford for real popular 
government. 

The language of article 121 of the Federal Consti- 
tution explains as nearly as could be the means by which 
Swiss citizens can amend their own fundamental law 
without the intervention of representatives. It is direct 
government in its purest and most workable form. Arti- 
cle 121 reads as follows: 

CONSTITUTION CAN BE AMENDED 
BY THE PEOPLE. 

'The Popular Initiative may be used when 50,000 
Swiss voters present a petition for the enactment, the 
abolition, or alteration of certain articles of the Federal 
Constitution. 

"When several different subjects are proposed for 
amendment or for enactment in the Federal Constitution 
by means of the Popular Initiative, each must form the 
subject of a special petition. 

''Petitions may be represented in the form of general 
suggestions or of a finished bill. When a petition is 
presented in the form of a general suggestion, and the 
Federal Assembly agrees thereto, it is the duty of that 
body to elaborate a partial amendment in the sense of 
the Initiators, and to refer it to the people and the 

58 



Cantons for acceptance or rejection. If the Federal 
Assembly does not agree to the petition, then the ques- 
tion of whether there shall be a partial amendment at 
all must be submitted to the vote of the people, and if 
the majority of the Swiss voters express themselves in 
the affirmative, the amendment must be taken in hand 
by the Federal Assembly in the sense of the people. 

"When a petition is presented in the form of a 
finished bill, and the Federal Assembly agrees thereto, 
the bill must be referred to the people and the Cantons 
for acceptance or rejection. In case the Federal As- 
sembly does not agree, that body can elaborate a bill 
of its own, or move to reject the petition, and submit 
its own bill or motion of rejection to the vote of the 
people and the Cantons along with the petition." 

EARLY SEEDS OF DIRECT GOVERNMENT. 

From time immemorial the principle, thought not 
the form, of the Initiative had existed in those Cantons 
governed by "Landsgemeinden." But the right of the 
voters to initiate legislation even in those Cantons was 
limited and restricted to such an extent that, in some 
cases, it was almost nullified. It was really not until 
Vaud made the experiment and Aargau followed suit 
a few years later that the Initiative, as it is now under- 
stood, was established in Switzerland. 

Of the two Cantons and four half-Cantons still 
governed by "Landsgemeinden," Uri, and Inner-Rhoden 
permit any voter to submit proposals at the cantonal 
assemblage ; Obwalden, Nidwalden and Glarus limit pro- 
posals to such as do not conflict with the constitution 
of the Federation or the Canton ; in Outer-Rhoden initi- 
atory legislation must be proposed by a body of voters 

59 



equal in number to elect the members of the cantonal 
council. 

The Initiative and Referendum in Switzerland have 
not compromised the rightful exercise of authority by 
legislative bodies, but direct legislation has served to 
improve both the acts of men in office and the calibre 
of officials themselves. 

THE SWISS PEOPLE AND MILITARY LEGISLATION. 

Much of Switzerland's progress in mihtary prepared- 
ness is due to the hard common sense of the Swiss people 
in exercising their powers of direct legislation on that 
subject. With the final say as to military matters, lying 
with the people themselves, they have chosen the sen- 
sible middle course, sufficiently providing for their de- 
fense without veering either to the side of militarism 
on the one hand, or that of pacifism on the other. 

Is it too much to expect that the American people 
when finally, directly or indirectly, they have the oppor- 
tunity of shaping this republic's preparedness program, 
will perform that duty just as capably and as wisely and 
as adequately as have the Swiss? 

Laws such as only a few of the more progressive 
States of democratic America can boast and which, pro- 
posed even in some section of our own country, are 
immediately frowned upon as extremely radical and 
socialistic, have a fixed place on the statute books of 
Switzerland, where the theories of democracy are trans- 
lated into a definite, active, workable program. 

PROGRESSIVE LAWS OF THE SWISS. 

Step by step, often with the direct approval of the 
people themselves, as expressed in Initiative and Refer- 

60 



endum, the law -builders of the Swiss Republic have 
erected a structure that bids fair to stand any test to 
which outright and direct democracy is likely ever to 
be subjected. 

More than that, the Swiss Civil Law is a long arm 
reaching out to obtain for every man, woman and child, 
of high or low degree, rich or poor, the exaction from 
every other of his obhgation; and it stands, as well, as 
a firm buttress, protecting the weak against the unjust 
encroachments of the powerful. It is evenly balanced, 
not, as some might think, framed to override the rights 
of vested interests; but always, to a nicety, reasonably 
subordinating private interests to public welfare, proper- 
ty to man. 

For the Swiss are sober, unemotional. They do not 
permit passion or prejudice to run away with sound 
judgment. In laying the foundation for the legal struc- 
ture they knew must stand severe testing, they remem- 
bered that they must "build their house on the rock." 

Because it is so apt an illustration of the evenly 
balanced, levelling effect of the principles of Swiss law, 
the "Ohligations-Recht," or Law of Obligation, stands out 
as a model. This statute was adopted in January, 1883, 
and is most sweeping in its provisions, governing almost 
every relationship or transaction into which human be- 
ings can enter. While protecting the right of a tenant 
to the reasonable enjoyment of his tenancy, it does not 
neglect that of the landlord. The small stockholder in 
a corporation finds his investment secure from mis- 
handling, but the directors are not hampered in their 
legitimate ambitions to extend their business. The rules 
governing the relations of master and servant, employer, 
are just to both ; each, generally speaking, being required 

61 



to give the other fourteen days' notice of termination of 
the employment. 

In brief, the Law of ObHgation does just what its 
title signifies: requires every person to live up to his 
obligations, and provides the means whereby he can com- 
pel others to live up to theirs. That can hardly be con- 
sidered extremely radical except to such whose idea of 
conservatism is to be let alone in their refusal to dis- 
charge their duties toward their fellows. The unfortu- 
nate, but undeniable fact that a large element among 
our men of big moneyed interests are endowed with just 
this disregard for the rights of the weaker citizen and 
the public in general is no doubt responsible for the out- 
raged cry of "Radicalism !" from such quarters whenever 
is heard the suggestion for the enactment of advanced 
legislation in the direction of enforcing equal rights for 
all of us. 

CIVIL RIGHTS OF WOMEN. 

In the marriage relation, too, things are equalized in 
Switzerland. A married woman has full civil rights, 
and can enjoy unhindered all the benefits from her sepa- 
rate property, whether real or personal. The Civil Law 
proper, adopted in 191 2, guarantees these equal rights 
to men and women, and it does many things that regu- 
late the family. Every person is compelled by law to 
support his dependant children, grandchildren, parents or 
grandparents. Promise to marry is not deemed a bind- 
ing contract, and damages for breach of promise cannot 
be recovered. 

Heirs-at-law, except for the gravest of reasons, can- 
not be entirely disinherited under the Swiss Civil Law. 
A child can be cut down in his parent's will only to 

62 



three-quarters of what his share would have been had 
there been no will; a parent can be cut down to one- 
half, and a brother or sister to one-fourth. The right 
of dower obtains, and that fact, considering married 
women have full civil rights, rather gives the female 
of the species in Switzerland something the better of it. 

INSURANCE REGULATION. 

In 19 1 o a statute was passed, stringently regulating 
the conduct of life, fire and other insurance branches. 
The government has laid down all-inclusive rules for 
provisions of insurance policies, so that it is well-nigh 
impossible for an insured person to be euchered out of 
his benefits by technicality. 

WORKMEN'S INSURANCE. 

A far-reaching departure was taken in 191 1 when 
the Swiss people at a Referendum adopted an employee's 
insurance and compensation law that makes the State, 
the employer and the employee partners in an enterprise 
of the widest scope and of inestimable good to the great 
mass of the people. Of the money paid into the fund 
from which sick or disabled workmen cash in their poli- 
cies, the government contributes twenty per cent., and 
the employers and employees forty per cent. each. 

An employee needs not to be injured in the perform- 
ance of his work to gain this benefit, as is the case under 
the employer's liability laws in force in many American 
States. Ordinary sickness that incapacitates him for 
labor entitles him to the full measure of payment. For 
the first ninety days of his disability he receives two- 
thirds of his regular wages, and one-half for the balance 

63 



of the first year. If the disabiHty be a permanent one 
he receives a lump sum, sufficient to enable him to em- 
bark in some business that will sustain him and his 
family. 

It is worthy of note that non-citizens employed in 
Swiss establishments (there are about 60,000 Italian 
subjects working in the country) are subject to the rule 
and enjoy the benefits of this governmental insurance 
system. 

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP. 

Public ownership of the pubHc utilities is an es- 
tablished principle, and one that has worked out with 
eminent success in Switzerland. In 1897 the people 
voted to take over the Swiss railroads. The majority 
in favor of the plan was overwhelming, the vote being 
about five to two. 

Nineteen years have shown the venture to be a most 
profitable one, the lines aflfording the government a 
sizeable revenue. Rolling stock, service and the system 
in general have been vastly improved since it was taken 
from private hands, and the railroad employees are better 
off than they were before. 

The only obstacle the Swiss government met when 
it proceeded to take the railroads, was that concerning 
the relations of the company operating the St. Gothard 
line with the German and Italian governments. This 
line runs from Lucerne, Switzerland, to Como, Italy, 
and forms the shortest route between Germany and 
Italy. For this reason, when the road was built, it was 
subsidized to the extent of $12,000,000 by Germany and 
$6,000,000 by Italy, with the proviso that, after three 
years, one-half of all yearly profits of operation, exceed- 

64 



ing six per cent, on the investment, should be paid to 
these two countries in pro rata shares. 

The Swiss balked at having to carry out this agree- 
ment after their own government had taken hold of the 
road, feeling it would smack too much of paying tribute 
to foreign countries. After much discussion the matter 
was settled by the payment of a lump sum to the cor- 
poration which had operated the road, out of which it 
made its own settlement with Germany and Italy. In 
addition, German and Italian freight, it was agreed, 
should always get the advantage of the minimum rates 
charged Swiss shippers, and to which other aliens are 
not entitled. 

All telegraph and telephone lines in Switzerland are 
operated by the government and are under the direction 
of the Post-Office Department. No effort is made to 
realize a profit from this venture, but no money is lost 
by it. Should there be at any time a surplus, the rates 
would in all likelihood be reduced. 

All alcohol and spirituous liquors are manufactured 
directly by the government or by firms acting under 
government concessions. Every cent of revenue derived 
by the government from this source is used for the main- 
tenance of the public schools of the various Cantons. 

CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES. 

Conservation of forests, streams and other natural 
resources plays an important part in Swiss governmental 
functions. The forests of Switzerland are surpassed by 
none in the world, not even those of Germany, and the 
Swiss Republic takes good care that so valuable an asset 
shall never be sacrificed to private greed. 

Municipalities own their forests, there are Cantonal 

65 



forests and Federal forest reserves, and the position 
of forester is a responsible one. The correction of 
streams in the country is' a project the government 
fosters and encourages. The Federation pays to the 
Cantons subsidies up to 50 per cent, of the cost of 
such improvements, the subsidies amounting to about 
$4,000,000 each year. 

Swiss municipalities have followed the example of 
the parent government in the matter of owning and 
operating pubHc utilities. Street-car lines, water plants, 
gas and electric works are all owned by the cities, towns 
and villages they supply. 

Returning for the nonce to the Civil Law, we find 
interesting and progressive legislation in regard to at- 
tachment and execution of debtors' property and to 
bankruptcy. Claims for labor are always placed in the 
first class along with those of the most preferred credit- 
ors. The others in the first class are the claims of a 
wife to one-half of the separate fortune she may have 
brought her husband at their marriage, that of a ward 
whose guardian has gone bankrupt and involved the 
ward's property, and claims for medical attendance. The 
next preferred class comprises claims for necessities of 
life, such as groceries or clothing. There are three 
other grades of preferred claims. This law dates from 
1888. 

A clause having a bearing on the military prepared- 
ness policy of Switzerland is contained in the revision 
of the Law of Obligation made in 191 2. It provides 
that no employer shall, under penalty, discharge or 
otherwise put at a disadvantage any employee because 
the latter must absent himself from his e'mployment on 
account of military duties. 

66 




Geneva, with Rousseau's Isle. 




DlSENTlS, WJTH THE BENEDICTINE AbBEY AND RAILROAD 

Station. The terminal of the new Furka Railway, 
leading from Brig via Gletsch to Discntis. 




^-i1 .i « ^.v tEv> _Bi» 




^f/3'PM± 







The Haus zum Ritter, dating from 1570, 

a late Gothic building in Schaffhaustn. 

Note the high gable and richly painted fagade. 



ABSOLUTE POLITICAL EQUALITY. 

The political rights of the Swiss men are what they 
should be in a democracy. Every male citizen, except 
convicts, bankrupt persons (who may be disqualified for 
a definite period by the courts), and insane persons, are 
entitled to vote. Women have no vote in Switzerland 
except at school elections in some Cantons. Equal po- 
litical rights are guaranteed to all males, no property or 
class qualifications being in the least recognized. 

The right to worship God as one's conscience dictates, 
an ideal identified with Switzerland from the days when 
harassed religious teachers of all faiths sought an Alpine 
refuge from their persecutors, holds good to this day 
to a marked degree. 



RELIGIOUS FREEDOM UNIMPAIRED. 

In practically all of the Cantons both Catholic and 
Protestant churches are the beneficiaries of state aid, 
the Cantons generally paying one-half the salary of 
priest and minister in each community. 

The Protestant population of Switzerland, in round 
numbers, is 2,500,000; the Catholic is 1,500,000. To a 
certain extent the religious division of the people is 
reflected in their alignment, the minority party being the 
Catholic Conservative, while the Progressive Democratic 
party is made up chiefly of Protestants. The latter, 
however, has numerous Catholics in its ranks and some 
of its greatest leaders have been of that faith. 

Since the adoption of the 1848 Constitution the Pro- 
gressive Democratic party has been continually in power, 
and to its credit must be placed the passage of the bulk 

67 



of the liberal, democratizing legislation now on the 
statute hooks. 

In a general, quite haphazard fashion the foregoing 
few pages point out some of the distinguishing features 
of a wonderful fabric of law that has been woven with 
as great care and looking to the ultimate result as the 
expert weavers of Zurich exercise in the manufacture 
of their far-famed silks. 

It is all to purpose that the reader should be given 
a glimpse at the Swiss legal system and its workings. 
A people s character can he read through the laws they 
make. A nation that has the soher, good sense, the sub- 
jection to discipline, to enact measures that zvill give to 
each his equal right; a people, clothed with the pozver to 
directly govern themselves to the minutest detail of 
government, who forego the opportunity to zvield that 
power to oppress interests zvhich zvould almost surely 
oppress them were democracy in Switzerland merely a 
name instead of a fact; a citizenry that has the sense of 
justice to exact from each his proper contribution to the 
public zveal, cannot be far wrong in any other direction 
in which it extends its activities. 

The Swiss, in their good judgment, have created a 
military system that rivals comparison, that has served 
to save them from the occurrence of the very contingen- 
cies for zvhich it zvas meant to provide. Who can doubt 
that the means chosen by the Swiss in their enactment 
of law to make democracy a reality might profitably be 
taken model of by us in America? 

Why question, then, the starimg truth of the assertion 
that America must likezvise establish such a military 
system, if even the measure of democracy zve now enjoy 
is to be preserved for the future generations? 

68 



CHAPTER I. 

Switzerland first to adopt obligatory service in modern times. — 
Military articles of Constitution of 1848. — Additional changes 
and improvements up to 1895. — Day of the Swiss pacifists. — 
Gertsch and Wille. — Temporary triumph of "anti-prepared- 
ness." — The inevitable reaction : Return of reason in 1907. — 
Switzerland today the answer to American pacifists. 

The Federal Constitution adopted in 1848 provided: 
"Every Swiss is bound to military service" ; thus making 
Switzerland the first nation in modern times to introduce 
compulsory service. 

Prompt measures were taken for national defense 
after the adoption of the 1848 constitution. Through 
legislation in 1850, 185 1 and 1853 the number of first 
line troops was increased to 69,569 and a reserve of 
34,785 was created, giving Switzerland an army of 
104,354. By 1866 the army had been increased to 
199,054. Development of military training and instruc- 
tion progressed rapidly, and fortifications were erected 
in Bellinzona near the Italian border, and in Luziensteig 
on the Austrian frontier. 

The Federal Government took over the business of 
instructing the engineer corps, artillery and cavalry, and 
the training of the instructors of infantry and the higher 
officers, while the insti'uction itself of the infantry was 
left to the various Cantons. 

By still another revision of the constitution in 1874, 
military administration was further centralized. The 
army of the Republic was made to consist of the con- 
tingents from the Cantons. The enrollment of the con- 

69 



tingents, their care, and the appointment and promotion 
of the officers remained with the Cantons but was con- 
trolled by general rules laid down by the Federal Gov- 
ernment. 

The latter, however, took over all instruction, training 
and arming, and reserved the right to enact military 
legislation. The Cantons were empowered to appoint 
and promote officers up to the grade of major, but only 
such as had been awarded Federal certificates of ability. 

Up till 1895 other changes in military administration 
took place, but there was yet room for improvement. 
The officers' societies (membership is compulsory for 
every officer), especially the younger officers, worked 
hard to bring about another revision of the military 
clause of the constitution, having a complete centrali- 
zation in view. 

But vast expenditure for the creation of the Land- 
sturm in 1886, the fortifications around the St. Gotthard 
and around St. Maurice (these two fortifications alone 
costing over $7,000,000), the rearming of the infantry 
(costing over $9,000,000) and demands of some over- 
zealous instructors, had provoked widespread dissatis- 
faction through sober Switzerland. These days gave 
birth to "anti-preparedness." Several influential news- 
papers nourished the discontent, attacking and seeking 
to discredit the officers, charging them with the ambition 
to "Prussianize" the army. 

A period of over twenty years of peace among the 
great European powers, the propaganda of the dreamers 
of "world peace," agitation of foreign-born citizens with 
socialistic tendencies, who pointed to the three years 
military service of the neighboring States as a dire 
menace surely to materiahze in Switzerland, with its 

70 



accompaniment of a tremendous national debt, should 
the Swiss people determine to hold pace in military 
efficiency with neighboring nations, were the obstacles 
to an effective preparedness of Switzerland in the nine- 
ties of the last century. 

"We do not need any additional preparation," the 
pacifists of Switzerland cried in those days. Think of 
the money modern rifles, modern guns, modern fortifi- 
cations and longer courses of training would cost ! Why 
should we go to all these expenses when there will never 
be another European War?" 

Such was the gospel preached from the Alps to the 
Rhine, from the Jura Hills to the Tyrolean Mountains; 
and the Swiss peasants and workingmen lent a more 
attentive ear to such arguments than to the sound rea- 
soning of the men who could not yet see the millenium 
on the threshold of Europe and who urged their people 
to prepare. Everything savoring of the military insti- 
tutions became for the time decidedly unpopular. The 
cry for demobilization was heard everywhere. 

The Federal legislature was in a quandary, as the 
referendum was sure to be invoked on any appropriation 
or military legislation, and its defeat when brought to 
a popular vote nobody could doubt. Thus by a general 
disrespect for Preparedness an undermining of discipline 
was brought about that saddened every true Swiss soldier. 

Some able officers sought to stem the tide of public 
opinion that seemed running against them, but with little 
success. 

The popular chord was tuned for the time being to 
"anti-preparedness." A captain of the General staff, 
Fritz Gertsch, a dashing and intelligent officer, under- 
took to enlighten the people on the necessity of good 

71 



discipline for the efficiency of any army. He published 
a pamphlet entitled : ''Arm or Disarm," which, in logical 
language said : 

''There is only one Swiss soldier, only one Swiss 
army possible, and that is a soldier whose obedience is 
unconditional and an army with the strictest discipline 
always enforced." 

In pointed words he attacked the newspapers that 
had incited a disregard of discipline among the soldiers. 

"The first thing I would do in case of war between 
the Republic and another nation," he wrote, "would be 
to confiscate every newspaper, and thereby prevent in- 
formation of our condition or movements from reaching 
the enemy." 

Gertsch's pamphlet was a sensation. Not only those 
newspapers which felt that "the shoe would fit" them, 
but nearly all of them took a fling at the fearless captain, 
and so to heart did he take this criticism that he handed 
in his resignation. 

Colonel Ulrich Wille, then chief of cavalry, and a 
great disciplinarian, had supported Gertsch whole heart- 
edly, and he too was forced into seclusion. The people 
had to have their victims. 

On November 3, 1895, the proposed revision of the 
military constitution was defeated by a vote of 270,000 
to 200,000. But such a setback could not permanently 
discourage the real leaders of "the people in arms." In 
a short time a great change of sentiment took place, 
and Wille and Gertsch "came back." Wille was desig- 
nated at the time of the 19 14 mobilization, the General 
of the Swiss Army, and Gertsch is commander of a 
brigade. 

72 



The highest rank in the Swiss Army, when on peace 
footing, is that of colonel. In time of mobilization 
the Federal Assembly elects a general as the chief of 
the entire army. But only three Swiss have ever car- 
ried this honor. They were Henry Dufour in 1857, 
when Switzerland mobilized against Prussia; Hans 
Herzog in 1870, at the Franco-Prussian War; and now 
Ulrich Wille. Within twelve years from the defeat of 
the proposed revision of the military article a great 
change in sentiment took place. The certainty was 
brought home to the Swiss people that only by a strong 
and efficient army could the independence of the Re- 
pubHc be maintained. November 5, 1907, was a red 
letter day for the Alpine citizenry. By an immense 
majority the article of the constitution was amended as 
the officers of the army had desired. 

The American people are not behind the Swiss in 
the matter of hard, common sense. That American 
pacifists may for a time mislead a considerable number 
of their fellow citizens is to be expected, just as the 
anti-preparedness advocates of 1895 gained a temporary 
triumph in Switzerland. We in America have one ad- 
vantage in that we have the example of Switzerland to 
hold up as refutation of the argument of the pacifists. 

When I had the privilege of testifying before the 
Ways and Means Committees of the New York Senate 
and Assembly in favor of the Welsh-Slater physical in- 
struction and military training bills, and again when 
Governor Whitman, May 15th, before signing the bills, 
conducted a hearing, I repeatedly heard opponents of 
the measures offer these objections: 

First — That any formidable preparedness is repug- 
nant to the ideals of a republic; 

1Z 



Second — Military training is harmful to good citi- 
zenship ; 

Third — The greater the preparedness of a nation, 
the more likely she will be to engage in war. 

I answered all three objections, as I answer now, in 
one word: Switzerland. 

No purer type of Republican ideals, no more fixed 
and devoted adherence to those ideals, can be found in 
all the world than in Switzerland. Nor are the demo- 
cratic principles of the Swiss people the mushroom 
growth of any sudden revolution; they have upheld and 
maintained their ideals through six centuries and, far 
from being repugnant to them, the military establish- 
ment of the Swiss has been the one means by which 
those ideals have been able to triumph over and with- 
stand the assaults of tyrants and oppressors who have 
sought to crush democracy. 

Again, the Swiss citizen is the living refutation of 
the charge that military training hurts good citizenship. 
There is no exaggeration in the statement that nowhere 
on earth are the two qualities of a highly efficient sol- 
dier and public-spirited citizen so united and blended 
as they are in your Swiss. Trained from youth, it is 
doubtful if, man for man, he has a peer in any army 
of Europe. Yet no one, claiming any knowledge of 
Swiss life and political conditions, fails to agree that 
the Swiss is a model of good citizenship, and that the 
civil government of the little republic is on a par with 
its army in efficiency. 

It is almost wasting time replying to the argument 
that adequate preparedness brings the danger of war. 
But here, once more, the proof of its falsity is furnished 
by Switzerland. Hemmed in among the four great bel- 

74 



ligerents— Germany, Austria, France and Italy— offering 
a convenient path by which either side could move to 
strike the other, Switzerland is at peace today, her 
neutrality respected and her territory unviolated, for 
no other reason than, that within 48 hours after war 
was declared she had her splendid army of 425,000 
mobilized on her four borders, serving notice on all the 
powers that she would not submit to the fate that sub- 
sequently overtook Belgium, defenseless Luxembourg 
and helpless Greece. 

Switzerland is neutral, not by the orders of the big 
powers of Europe, but by her own voluntary decision; 
nor could she today be compelled to become unneutral, 
as in 1798 when it pleased Napoleon to make her his 
ally in war. 

To this policy of neutrality the Alpine republic is 
going to adhere, but it should not be forgotten that in 
placing her powerful military forces to guard the bor- 
ders, the ultimate duty is not merely the protection of 
her neutrality, but the preservation of her liberty and 
independence at all hazards and at any cost. 

Picture, if you can, the perils to which little Switzer- 
land would have been subjected at the beginning of the 
world war in 1914, had her policy been dictated by such 
gentry as those Americans who howl dismally against 
adequate preparedness in the United States! Would 
the military necessity that holds treaties to be but ''scraps 
of paper" have hesitated to invade Switzerland if Swit- 
zerland had been weak? Belgium bled and is bleeding 
because she was weak. 

Our amiable pacifists might well visualize the fate 
that would have overtaken Switzerland, had either Ger- 
many or France deemed it safe to attack the other 

75 



through Swiss territory. The only reason Switzerland 
has not been trampled iipoii, is that she is able to resist 
invasion. No other consideration but that of expedi- 
ency seems to govern the conduct of nations locked in 
a death struggle. 

Thorough preparedness in Switzerland has made for 
peace in Switzerland, demonstrating the absurdity of paci- 
fists claims that preparedness for war is an invitation 
to war. Does a quarrelsome man, looking for fight, pick 
out a heavy weight pugilist to try conclusions with ? The 
natural laws are as immutable in their application to 
nations as to individuals. Most nations have shown 
themselves to be pretty much of the bully type, and 
the bully preys on the weak and defenseless every time. 

If tiny Switzerland can ward ofif aggression by mili- 
tary preparedness, how comparatively simple would it 
be for great America to do the same! The danger is 
imminent, for America stands in the way of more than 
one nation's ambition for power and aggrandizement. 
The peril impends, and Switzerland proffers the remedy. 
A system that has worked so well in democratic Swit- 
zerland, if modified to fit American needs and conditions, 
cannot fail in the United States. 



76 



CHAPTER II. 

Details of the 1907 Military Organization. — Divisions based on 
languages spoken. — First Line, Landwehr and Landsturm. — 
Mental and physical tests at the age of nineteen. — Rivalry 
among Cantons for showing in tests. — Recruiting schools, — 
Length of service in school and with colors. 

The thorough and scientific way in which Switzer- 
land's military authorities set out to build up and equip 
her army after the people, through the Constitutional 
amendment of 1907, had given them free rein to put 
the Republic on a footing of adequate preparedness is 
at once interesting in its side-lights on the Swiss charac- 
teristic of doing all things well, and instructive to our 
own people as they contemplate strengthening the de- 
fenses of America. 

Here are some of the salient features of the organi- 
zation as it exists today: 

It provides for six divisions of the First Line. The 
organization of division takes cognizance of the language 
spoken in the Cantons. 

The First Division is French speaking, and derives 
its contingents from the Cantons of Geneve, Valais, and 
Vaud; the Second Division is French speaking from 
Neuchatel, Fribourg, and Jura Bernois. The Third, 
Fourth and Fifth recruit their men from the German 
speaking Cantons of Bern, Lucerne, Solothurn, Basel, 
Aargau, St. Gallen, Zurich and Schauffhausen. The 
Sixth division, with the Italian language as well as the 
German, embrace men from the Cantons of Ticino, 



Graubunden, and parts of St. Gallen and Appenzell. As 
each division contains three brigades, the federation has 
1 8 infantry brigades of the First Line. In four of the 
divisions the third brigade is a mountain brigade of 
infantry. Each regiment of infantry has attached to 
it one company with 12 machine guns. 
The organization provides for: 

First Line. 

Infantry: 36 regiments, each regiment containing 3 bat- 
tahons; a battalion, 25 officers and 881 soldiers. 
Four companies of 5 officers and 209 soldiers 
each form a battalion. 

Artillery: Seventy-two batteries of field artillery as- 
sembled in 12 regiments. Each battery has 4 or 

5 officers, I veterinary, 21 non-commissioned of- 
ficers, 118 men, 122 horses and 4 pieces. There 
are six batteries of howitzers for each division. 
Twelve companies (4 guns each) of foot artillery 
and 24 batteries of mountain artillery complete 
the First Line artillery. 

Cavalry: Eight regiments of 3 squadrons each, forming 
4 brigades; also 12 companies of guides, forming 

6 groups. Each squadron numbers 4 officers, 17 
non-commissioned officers, 107 troopers, 123 sad- 
dle-horses and 8 draft-horses. 

Engineers: Twenty-four companies of sappers. 

Signal corps: Six. 

Bridge Trains: Six. 

Telegraph Companies: Six. 

Medical Corps: Each division: i division hospital, 5 

companies sanitary troops, i mountain hospital, 

2 sanitary companies. 

78 



Ammunition Trains : Each division : 2 companies ar- 
tillery ammunition, i company infantry ammuni- 
tion, 2 pack trains. 

Second Line or Landwehr. 

Infantry: 212 companies of 170 men each assembled in 
56 battalions which form 16 regiments, 2 regi- 
ments to a brigade. 

Artillery: Forty-three companies and 8 battahons of 
mountain artillery. 

Cavalry: Twenty-four squadrons. 

Third Line or Landsturm. 

Infantry: Eighty-three battalions. 

Artillery : Foot and fortification artillery : 39 companies 

Cavalry: Thirteen companies. 

The approximate number of men who can be mobil- 
ized on the firing line is : 

First Line (men up to their 32nd year) 225,000 
Landwehr (men up to their 40th year) 110,000 
Landsturm (men up to their 48th year) 80,000 

415,000 

Besides this number there is a reserve force of 
250,000 Landsturm men, 90% of whom are good shots 
if nothing more. 

Every male Swiss at his nineteenth year must sub- 
mit to a mental and physical examination. The mental 
test includes reading, arithmetic, geography, history and 
composition. 

For physical examination he performs various gym- 
nastic exercises on apparatus. The minimum height is 
5 feet, 15^ inches (United States minimum is 5 feet 

79 



2 inches) ; chest measurement, half of height, but not 
less than 31 3^ inches. 

There is a great rivalry" among the Cantons to have 
the highest percentage in the recruiting examinations, as 
they are published throughout Switzerland. Some Can- 
tons compel the youths from 17 to 19 to go to night 
school for 64 hours during the winter, to prepare for 
the examination. 

When accepted, in his 20th year the infantry recruit 
enters the recruiting school of his territorial division, 
or if he is to become an artilleryman or cavalryman he 
joins his respective school, of which there are two for 
each branch. 

The length of time devoted to the first year's train- 
ing of the recruit is as follows, day of entrance and day 
of discharge included : 

Days 
Sanitary troops, supply trains, commissary. . 62 

Infantry and Engineers 67 

Artillery and garrison troops 'j'j 

Cavalry 92 

At the time the recruit reports for his service he is 
given a complete equipment and a regulation rifle, all 
of which he takes home after finishing the course. For 
yearly inspection and active duty he must turn out with 
his equipment spick and span. For neglecting any detail 
at inspection or losing articles he is punished. 

The recruiting school course is hard work, as each 
day means eight strenuous hours, with night work such 
as firing, intrenching and maneuvers, probably twice a 
week. 

Completion of the school course promotes the recruit 
to a full-fledged soldier, assigned to a battalion in his 

80 



home district which is a unit of the division of which 
his Canton is a territorial part. As a member of a 
battaHon, he serves each year thirteen days until he is 
28. He belongs to the First Line for 4 years longer, 
until he is 32, but in those 4 years he is not bound to 
do any yearly service. 

From 32 to 40 he belongs to the Second Line, or 
Landwehr. In this capacity he serves for one week 
every second year. For 8 years, until he is 48, he serves 
in the Landsturm, and is called to the colors twice for 
a period of one week. In addition, every Landwehr 
and Landsturm soldier presents himself for annual in- 
spection, at which time he must account for the care of 
his uniform and arms. 

Time of instruction for a Swiss infantry private : 

Days 

Recruiting School, at his 20th year 67 

First Line, up to his 32nd year: 

7 repetition courses at 13 days each 91 

Landwehr, up to his 40th year : 

4 courses of 7 days each 28 

Landsturm, up to his 48th year : 

2 courses of 7 days each 14 

200 
The Landsturm has two classes, the armed and un- 
armed. The armed class is organized into companies, 
troops and regiments. The unarmed class has special 
duties in war time. 

When the youth of 19 passes the mental and physical 
examination for admission into the service he is given 
a page in the "Service ledger" of his recruiting district. 
Each district has a Federal Military Bureau directed 
by Federal officers. The service ledger contains the 

81 



pedigree of the man, his rating and mental tests, the 
branch of arms for which he was selected and the unit 
to which he belongs. All promotions as well as details 
of his conduct every time he did service, are entered in 
the ledger. If he leaves his recruiting district to make 
his home in another, he is compelled to inform the dis- 
trict chiefs of the old and new district within three days 
and give his new address. A duplicate of all this data 
in the form of a "service book" (Dienstbiichlein) is 
given to each man. 

This book is the "report card" of every Swiss citizen. 
It is kept strictly up-to-date, and is a "passport," for 
his military life. 

So there, briefly outlined, is the plan under which 
the finest military organization in the world works. 
Every man has his place, every able-bodied Swiss citizen 
does his part in assuring the safety of his country, and 
does it gladly and with pride in the doing. 

Herbert Spencer said "organization is the ability to 
apply all available knowledge and all available energy 
at a given time and a given place to the accomplish- 
ment of a particular object." The Swiss in their military 
establishment have applied that definition with wonder- 
ful results. There is no waste, no confusion, no fatal 
hesitation about doing the right thing in the right way 
at the right time. Forsooth, there be none accompanying 
such a task as mobilizing one-tenth of a nation of peace- 
ful workingmen and agriculturalists into a splendid 
fighting machine inside of 48 hours. 

It bears the lesson of value of preparedness and of 
the proper system upon which to base preparedness. 
Can America learn that lesson? How could she be so 
blind as to fail to learn it? 

82 




-at- 




J" 



iim. 




CHAPTER III. 

Marksmanship in Switzerland. — Rifle shooting a national sport. — 
All undergo yearly tests. — Triennial "Schiitzenfeste." — Swiss 
take first honors in 17 out of 18 international shoots. — Scores 
of all international shoots. — Camp Perry. — Lesson in thor- 
oughness for Americans. — Training of officers. — Chance for 
any citizen to become an officer, — Apportionment of cost 
between Federal government and Cantons. — Tax of exemp- 
tion. — Swiss system economical as well as efficient. — Shows 
what America might accomplish at slight cost. — Public funds^ 
carefully expended in Switzerland. — Tables of pay in Unite 
States and Swiss Army. 

Swiss proficiency in marksmanship, the thorough 
training Swiss army ofificers receive at a minimum cost 
of time, and the remarkable economy that characterizes 
the maintenance of so splendid a military establishment 
all contain vital lessons that America may well heed as 
she stands on the threshold, about to enter into an era 
of preparedness. 

In order to be a crack marksman be it with the 
crossbow of Wilhelm Tell or the modern 7 mm. army 
rifle, the Swiss for six centuries, in early boyhood and 
until old age, has practiced shooting. 

Rifle practice is the sport of old and young, even 
in the smallest village. Every community is compelled 
by the Federal government to build and maintain a rifle 
range in the open field. 

Every Swiss soldier in civil life must belong to a 
rifle club, under the auspices of which he has to undergo 

83 



a yearly shooting test, consisting of 6x6, or 36 shots, 
with a minimum of 75 per cent, hits and 60 per cent, 
points, for each exercise. 

Target '*A" has an inner black circle of 16 inches 
diameter, counting four points, enclosed by a larger 
circle of 24 inches, counting three points, a third circle 
of 40 inches, counting two points, and an outer circle 
of 60 inches, counting one point. 

Target "B" represents the head and chest of a soldier 
and is 16 inches high. Hits in the head or neck count 
two points, in all other parts of the effigy, one point. 
The distances used for target "B" are 300 meters (333 
yards) for position I (kneeling), and II (prone) ; and 
200 meters {222 yards) for position III (prone with 
supported rifle). 

The following table makes clear the tests each Swiss 
must undergo yearly: 

Distance 



Tcise 


Meters 


Yds. 


Position 1 


Parg 


I 


300 


333 


prone 


A 


II 


300 


333 


kneeling 


A 


III 


200 


222 


standing 


A 


IV 


300 


333 


kneeling 


B 


V 


300 


333 


prone 


B 


VI 


200 


222 


prone (with sup- 
ported barrel) 


B 



The last day in each year for filing the returns of 
this annual test is July 15. To insure a good score 
one can practice on the shooting range whenever he 

84 



chooses from early spring until such time as he feels 
himself prepared to take the compulsory test. 

The Federal government refunds the cost of the 
ammunition used to all those who pass, and pays to 
each rifle club two francs (39 cents) for each man 
coming up to the required mark. 

Woe to the chap that fails in this rigid test! He is 
in disgrace among his companions, and in November or 
December he must again don his uniform, shoulder his 
rifle, go to the nearest recruiting place, and practice 
shooting under the eyes of special instructors until he 
passes the required mark for 36 shots. 

There are in Switzerland at the present time 4,000 
rifle clubs with an aggregate membership of 400,000 
men. Two million francs is the cost to the government 
of the approximate number of shots fired in target 
practice every year. 

This persistent rifle practice makes every Swiss sol- 
dier a crack shot, and is largely responsible for the high 
efficiency of the army. That proficiency in shooting 
grows from year to year is evident from the following 
facts : 

Federal "Schiitzenfeste" are held every three years, 
the highest award being the title of **Meisterschiitze," 
given to those who make seventy-five hits out of one 
hundred shots within a circle of 20 centimeters (eight 
inches), in kneeling position, at a distance of 300 meters 
(330 yards). 

In 1900, at Lucerne, four ''Meisterschiitzen" were 
proclaimed. In 1904 at St. Gall, thirteen. In 1907 at 
Zurich, twenty-seven. In 1910 at Bern, one hundred 
and twenty-eight. 

85 



Undoubtedly there are hundreds, if not thousands, 
of Swiss who could make this mark, but every Swiss 
has not the money to spend or the time to lose to take 
part in a Federal Schiitzenfest. 

The widespread interest in these Schiitzenfeste can 
be imagined from the fact that at Bern, in 191 o, three 
hundred gallery stands were in use. At every stand 
there were from thirty to forty men waiting their turn, 
some of them for ten or twelve hours. The same year 
the Rheinische Schiitzenfest took place at Karlsruhe, 
Germany, for a district five times the size of all Switzer- 
land, and there only fifty stands were in use, and rarely 
more than three men at a time waiting for their turn 
to shoot. , r. » / 

During the year jgip, there were a total of 44,000,000 
shots fired in rifle practice in Switzerland, with its 
4,000,000 population. i 

In Germany (population 67,000,000) thet^e were only 
30,000,000 practice shots fired that year, a/d in France 
(population 40,000,000) but 20,000,000 shots. V i 

It will be remembered that at the international stioot 
in Camp Perry, Ohio, September, 191 3, Switzerland's 
team came out ahead of those of all other competing 
nations. The official returns were: 

Switzerland 4^959 

France 47^7 

United States 4,57^ 

Sweden 4.577 

Peru 3.892 

Canada 3,7^0 



up to this year Switzerland had carried first honors 
in seventeen out of eighteen international shoots. 

Here is Switzerland's Score of the International 
Shoots : 

Year Place Points 

1897 Lyons 2,310 

1898 * Turin 2,310 

1899 The Hague 4,528 

1900 Paris 4,399 

1901 Lucerne 4,567 

1902 Rome 4,484 

1903 Buenos Ayres 4,59^ 

1904 Lyons 4,542 

1905 Brussels 4,737 

1906 Milan 4,7i6 

1907 Zurich 4,848 

1908 Vienna 4,617 

1909 Hamburg 4,840 

1910 The Hague 4,9^8 

191 1 Rome 5,014 

1912 Biarritz 5,172 

1913 Camp Perry, U. S. A. ... 4,959 

1914 Vyborg 5,025 

Your Swiss citizen proves the adage, "Practice makes 
perfect." He is the marksman par excellence because 
it is part of his routine life to make himself proficient 
in marksmanship. This is but a phase of the general 
thoroughness of the Swiss military system. 



* The only time Switzerland was not first (held second rank). 

87 



Just as the Swiss boy, imbued in his school days 
with the idea of subjecting himself to disciphne, falls 
readily when he reaches his-twentieth year into the cus- 
toms of arrny life; just as the physical training he re- 
ceived in his youth fits him to bear the vigorous hard- 
ships of the soldier, so does his regular and continuous 
target practice make him a dreaded figure when he aims 
his rifle at his country's foe. 

In this, as in other particulars, America can well 
take example from Switzerland. How Swiss boys are 
trained to be competent marksmen, and the best way of 
duplicating the plan in America are topics fully treated 
of in other chapters. But it is fitting here to emphasize 
the practical results in the Alpine republic, and their 
significance to us. 

So much for rifle practice. Now let us turn to the 
training of the army officers. Any Swiss who has the 
ambition and possesses the intelligence can become an 
ofiicer in the army. After completing the course of 
sixty-seven days in the recruiting school, if his conduct 
during that time warrants a recommendation from his 
superiors, he gets a call to attend a school for non- 
commissioned officers, lasting three weeks, after which 
he receives the rank of corporal. As such he attends 
another recruiting school a year later, and the corporal 
with a good record and the ambition to become an officer 
enters the school for officers for a period of eighty days. 
There he is taught all that a second lieutenant and first 
lieutenant need to qualify for their positions. For prac- 
tical and training purposes a school for non-commis- 
sioned officers is connected with the school for officers. 

After serving eighty days the second lieutenant goes 
through a -thirteen days' regular first-line course with 



his battalion, and the following year spends sixty-seven 
days at the school for recruits as a second lieutenant. 
Time of instruction to become a second lieutenant 
of infantry: 

Days 

Recruiting school 67 

Repetition course with his battalion 13 

School for non-commissioned officers 21 

Recruiting school as a corporal 67 

Repetition course with his battalion 13 

School of officers 80 

Repetition course with his battalion 13 

Recruiting school as a lieutenant 67 

341 

For four years the second lieutenant must serve 
thirteen days a year and then may become a first lieu- 
tenant. To advance to the rank of captain he must take 
a forty-five days' course in Central School No. i. 

Officers above the rank of captain devote a consider- 
able part of their time to special courses in tactics, in- 
formation, etc. The higher the rank, the greater the 
amount of duty and preparation. Commanders of divi- 
sions and army corps commanders are chosen from the 
professional officers. 

Switzerland spends on her army eleven francs 
($2.20) per capita of the population, and twenty-three 
francs ($4.50) on public education. 

The State and municipalities expend for a pupil in 
the elementary public school 105 francs ($21.00) ; for 
pupils in secondary schools 160 francs ($32.00). 



The following table shows how the Swiss earn their 
living : 

Of i,ooo Swiss: 

418 are occupied in trade and manufacturing, 
332 in agriculture, 

86 in commerce, 

59 in administrative positions, 

50 in transportation, 

55 in unclassified occupations. 



1,000 



Those Swiss who are physically unfit to serve in the 
army must pay an annual tax of exemption. Swiss citi- 
zens living in other lands are obligated to pay this tax, 
and, with few exceptions they do so. 

It amounts to a ground tax of i^ per cent., and a 
personal property tax of ij4 per thousand. 

The equipment, other than fire and side-arms — with 
the exception of underwear, shoes, and stockings — is 
furnished by the Cantons. The cost of this equipment 
is from 185 francs ($37) for the infantry to 225 francs 
($45) for the cavalry. Half of this expense, however, 
is borne by the Federal government, and is paid out of 
the military taxes. 

The yearly Federal military budget in peace time 
(1914) is 45,000,000 francs ($9,000,000), out of which 
is paid the cost of : 

1. Half of the equipment to the Cantons. 

2. The whole of armament of all military branches. 

3. The maintenance of the army in instruction and 

training courses. 

90 



4- Fortification of strategically important points. 
5. The rents of the military barracks of which the 
Cantons are owners. 

The cost of a soldier to Federation and Canton is : 

Infantry Cavalry 

Francs Dols. Francs Dols. 

Equipment 185 37 225 45 

Arms no 22 120 24 

Total 295 59 345 69 

Share of Cantons 95 19 115 23 

Share of Federation . . 200 40 230 46 

Surely no one will assert that $9,000,000 is an ex- 
cessive annual budget to maintain a military establish- 
ment which permits a trained and equipped army of 
425,000 to be mobilized and ready for action within 
two days. There is economy as well as efficiency there; 
something America might well take note of, for we have 
displayed neither quality during recent years in the con- 
duct of our military establishment. 

The fact that American Congresses have appropri- 
ated great sums for military and naval purposes without 
any proportionate return being manifest, has afforded 
pacifists the chance of appealing on the grounds of 
economy against preparedness on a large scale. 

"What!" they exclaim. "Double or treble our mili- 
tary forces? Look at the immense amount it costs to 
maintain what little we have!" 

And at that sort of reasoning canny citizens wag 
their heads dolefully and see visions of national bank- 
ruptcy ahead if the preparedness advocates have their 
way. 

91 



But Switzerland is not bankrupt, and her 4,000,000 
people support a military establishment that can put 
nearly half a million soldiers into the field. Nor must 
one imagine for an instant the Swiss would hesitate to 
voice his complaints if he thought the army was costing 
too much. He guards his pocket as closely as he does 
his national rights. 

Every cent of public money expended in Switzerland 
is made to count ; that is the secret. Once imbue Ameri- 
can Congresses with the same attribute of careful and 
economical management which characterizes Switzer- 
land's public servants, let them proceed in that spirit to 
carry out the Swiss system here, and the cost of main- 
taining the greatest defense force on earth will be no 
burden at all upon our 100,000,000 inhabitants. 

Pay in the Swiss Army per day : 

Active Service 

Francs Dols. 

General 50 10 

Head of the General Staff 40 8 

Army Corps Commander 35 7 

Division Commander ... 30 6 

Colonel 20 4 

Lieutenant-Colonel 15 3 

Major 12 2.40 

Captain 10 2 

First Lieutenant 8 1.60 

Lieutenant 7 1.40 

Sergeant 2 0.40 

Corporal 1.50 0.30 

Private 0.80 0.16 

92 



Training 


Service 


Francs 


Dols. 


17 


340 


17 


340 


17 


340 


17 


340 


17 


340 


13 


2.60 


II 


2.20 


9 


1.80 


7 


1.40 


6 


1.20 


2 


0.40 


1.50 


0.30 


0.80 


0.16 



The pay in the United States Army is as follows : 

Lieutenant-General $ii,ooo a year 

Major-General 8,000 

Brigadier-General 6,000 

Colonel 4,000 

Lieutenant-Colonel 3j500 

Major ■ 3,000 

Captain 2,400 

First-Lieutenant 2,000 

Second-Lieutenant 1,700 

Sergeant 360 

Corporal 252 

Private 180 

From Colonel down the payment is increased every 
five years. 



In the U. S. Navy the pay is: 

Admiral $13,500 a year 

Rear- Admiral 8,000 

Captain 4,000 

Commanders 3,5oo 

Lieutenant-Commanders . . 3,000 

Lieutenants . . - 2,400 

Ensigns 1,700 

Midshipmen 600 



93 



CHAPTER IV. 

Swiss mobilization system reorganized four months before out- 
break of European War. — Details of the regulations. — Suc- 
cess of first try-out August i, 1914. — Comments of United 
States military attaches on ground. — "Thorough, earnest and 
businesslike." — American patriotism and American sloth. — 
Colonel Sanger's observations. — We must apply our patriot- 
ism practically, as does the Swiss, or all heroic sacrifices 
will be in vain. 

Whether by accident or because rumors of impending 
war had reached the ears of the Swiss diplomats, Swit- 
zerland reorganized her mobilization system on April, 
1914, four months before the outbreak of the great 
world struggle. For the seven preceding years sections 
of the 1907 amendments to the military article of the 
Constitution had governed mobilization of the army. 
Experience, however, had made a manifest number of 
possible improvements in the method of marshalling the 
army, and these were inaugurated in the decree of April 
I, 1914. 

Who knows what tribulations this foresight saved the 
Swiss? For the day that German troops assailed Bel- 
gium and invaded Luxembourg, the four frontiers of 
Switzerland were walled off by gleaming bayonets in the 
capable hands of 425,000 trained fighting men. 

The mobilization regulations of April, 1914, put on 
a war footing all units, detachments and staffs; and, 

I. Provide for the transport of all members of the 
army to their points of mobilization. 

94 



2. Govern the procedure of military boards convened 

to place a valuation on horses seized for cavalry 
uses. 

3. Instruct commandants concerning mobilization points. 

4. Direct the Cantonal military department as to their 

handling of the mobilization. 

The duties of the "Platz Kommandant" or comman- 
dant at place of mobilization are: 

a. Physical examination of all troops. 

b. Sanitary examination of all locations wherein troops 

have to be housed. 

c. Regulations concerning the number of horses and 

all kinds of vehicles to be rented. 

d. Supervising the departure of ready troops from 

places of mobilization and their transport by 
railroads. 

In June, 191 4, the new mobilization plans were 
brought to the notice of every Swiss. Mobihzation 
posters giving all necessary information were pasted on 
public bulletin boards in cafes, railroad stations and 
other places, so that when the real call for the colors 
was issued August i, 1914, the town crier and the church 
bells transmitted to every Swiss the electrifying com- 
mands : 

"Mobihzation !" and, "To the Frontier !" 

Immediately the Landsturm joined the customs 
guards on the border, sentries and outposts seemed to 
spring up from the ground at every bridge and public 
building. 

On the first day after the call every soldier went to 
his reporting place. The members of infantry battalions 
assembled for the physical examination and received 

95 



their full field quota of ammunition in their designated 
center, wherefrom they proceded by railroad to one of 
the eight main mobilization places. Here they joined 
the other two battalions of their regiment, obtained their 
battalion property, such as baggage wagons, rolling 
kitchens, ammunition wagons, blankets, additional in- 
trenching tools, etc. 

Artillery and cavalrymen went directly to report in 
one- of the main mobilization places, where their bat- 
teries and belongings were stationed, and staffs had pre- 
pared all the detail as to the outfitting of the units. 

When the troops were assembled and equipped in 
their places of mobilization, the movement of concen- 
tration began. All the forces in arms either by railroad 
or by marches started toward the threatened border, 
where they entered their organization. 

Every Swiss soldier keeps at his home his complete 
military equipment and this, of course, aids a speedy 
mobilization. 

Here are some observations of American officers. 

Major Edzvard P. Lazvton, U. S. military attache in 
Switzerland at the outbreak of the war, August 1914, 
says: 

''Of course, the mobilization of the Swiss Army was 
the matter of chief interest for me as well as for the 
attaches of the other countries represented at Bern. 
Unfortunately for us, apparently one of the first acts 
of the Swiss General Staff was to issue orders to taboo 
and exclude foreign military attaches from all observa- 
tion of the details of mobilization, and not one of us 
was allowed anywhere near the frontiers. We could 
see nothing more than the marching of the troops 
through the streets and on the roads. The ordinary 

96 



civilian could get nearer the frontier then we could. 
This is simply one feature of the thoroughness of their 
system and in which they out-German the Germans, 
their military models. The Swiss have little sentiment, 
lack courtesy, and everything is strictly a matter of busi- 
ness with them. They are self-opinionated and Spartan- 
like, take life very seriously and have no sympathy for 
the frivolous (?) foreigners making a playground of a 
country, the people of which have ideals so opposite 
from theirs. These characteristics, which render them 
far from popular, especially with the Anglo-Saxon ele- 
ment, are sure to make them formidable in war. Every 
man is a soldier if physically able to be one. Every 
Swiss takes a deep interest in the army and appears to 
be imbued with the highest form of patriotism. Their 
military work in peace time or in war time is the same 
thorough, plodding, earnest, work which makes for effi- 
ciency. Their military seems to take no rest, as though 
the country were always in imminent danger. This has 
been going on steadily since the reorganization of the 
army on modern lines in 1907, and has produced a 
wonderfully efficient military system perfectly suited to 
the country." 

Captain Charles W. Exton, United States Army at- 
tache in Switzerland, contributes some observations of 
the 1914 mobilization. He says : 

"Equipment: The equipment of all arms, and in- 
cluding special troops, was complete in every detail and 
in excellent conditions. Whenever troops are demobil- 
ized in Switzerland the equipment is thoroughly reno- 
vated and repaired before putting in the storehouse. 

"The rolling kitchen, so common in Europe, was used 
by all troops except the mountain troops. The mountain 

97 



troops used camp kettles and a small combination stove 
and fireless cooker, four to each company. All equip- 
ment of the mountain troops was of such size and 
shape as to be easily packed on a pack-saddle. 

''The transportation pertaining to a company of in- 
fantry and troops of cavalry consisted of one ammuni- 
tion caisson, one baggage wagon, one rolling kitchen, 
and one farm wagon (requisitioned). 

''Uniform: The Swiss troops are just now making 
the change from the old blue to the new gray green; 
so part were wearing the old and part the new uniform. 

"The troops have but the one uniform for field and 
garrison. The gray green is a most excellent color for 
this country, as it blends so well with the green of the 
valleys and with the rocks and snows of the mountains. 
The material is excellent and is made in Switzerland. 

''Horses: The horse in Switzerland is a valuable 
animal. Those horses regularly belonging to the mili- 
tary department have been purchased with great care, 
principally in England, Austria and Germany. 

"Since the war began, however, some have been pur- 
chased in the United States. All new horses are sent 
to remount depots where they are carefully trained by 
experienced horsemen. The general appearance of all 
horses is excellent. The horses requisitioned for service 
at mobilization, as well as those in the hands of the in- 
dividual cavalryman, have also been selected with care 
and were all in excellent condition when reported for 
service. 

"The Soldier: The appearance and work of the sol- 
dier during the few days of mobilization showed him 
to have so benefited by his previous training in service 

98 





w 



'T 



as to make the Swiss Army probably the best-trained 
army, for its size, in the world today. 

''Every man seemed thoroughly familiar with his 
duty, which he performed more or less as a matter of 
business. 

"The discipline appeared excellent and of the charac- 
ter that is cheerfully accepted rather than maintained 
by force. The relation between officers and men was 
quite intimate at times, yet there was at the same time 
such an observance of details as might be found only 
in the German army. As a matter of fact everything 
about the Swiss Army, especially their thoroughness as 
to details, seems modelled after the German Army. 

''The Officers: An officer of the line should never be 
judged except after some considerable service either in 
campaign or at maneuvers ; yet, from the work observed 
during mobilization and from conversations with the 
Swiss officers during the past three months, it is believed 
that the Swiss officers will, especially since their service 
during the past year, compare favorably with the officers 
of any army in the world. 

"It must be remembered that the Swiss officers are 
selected from educated men of Switzerland, and among 
them are found the leading men of every profession 
and business, and when one considers that in order to 
have reached the grade of second lieutenant he must 
have spent at least 336 days of intensive military train- 
ning, — 144 days of which is principally school work,^ — 
one realizes the seriousness with which the service is 
accepted and the standard of thoroughness which may 
be attained in such a militia system." 

It should not escape note that Major Laivton and 
Captain Ext on, as indeed most others who have coni- 

99 



mented on the Swiss military establishment, make re- 
peated use of the adjective ''thorough," ''earnest," "busi- 
ness-like," "patriotic," in describing the attitude of the 
officials and the citizen-soldiers toward the army. It is 
likewise well to observe that all agree the Swiss are 
just as thorough in the matter in times of peace as they 
are when war exists or is threatened. 

We Americans are endowed with as high a degree 
of patriotism as are the Swiss, but we sadly lack the 
Swiss thoroughness in putting our lofty sentiments to 
practical account. We are too prone to talk about the 
sacrifices we would make for our country in time of 
need, and not enough inclined to equip ourselves so that 
such sacrifices, when the need does arise, shall not have 
been in vain. 

To quote again from the words of an American 
army officer, we find that very thought occurred to 
Colonel William Gary Sanger hack in 1900. In a report 
he made in that year he wrote : 

"If proof were needed that a land can train all its 
citizens for the efficient and intelligent performance of 
that work which must be done when war comes, and at 
the same time escape the evils of what is today called 
militarism, that proof can be found in the Republic of 
Switzerland. 

"A Republic with the strongest democratic tenden- 
cies, with a constitution not unlike our own, with intense 
local pride and cherished local traditions, with an inbred 
conviction that the central authority must not unduly 
encroach upon the rights of the Cantons, with a worthy 
love of peace and its blessings, without the slighest 
thought of adding a foot to their territory, but with an 
intense love of country and a cheerful willingness to 

100 



perform every service which their citizenship entails, 
they have evolved and developed a military system which 
has given them the best in the world. It is of the great- 
est interest to us that in organizing this splendid body 
of citizen-soldiers they have worked along the lines laid 
down by the men who formed the Constitution of the 
United States. 

"The right of the Cantons to name the officers who 
are to be commissioned, a right which was reserved to 
the States by our Constitution, exists today in Switzer- 
land, subject to the limitations of proved efficiency and 
fitness. 

"The organization and discipline of the Swiss militia 
is under Federal control in Switzerland, just as is pre- 
scribed by our Constitution ; the universal military ser- 
vice still remains a theory with us, but in Switzerland 
it is real and actual. 

"But one striking difference separates their methods 
from ours ; for over a hundred years we have failed to 
pass any laws or take any action in Congress for im- 
proving and developing our citizen-soldiers ; Switzerland, 
on the contrary, has profited by experience, and has 
made its mistakes or shortcomings the stepping-stone to 
better conditions ; it has carefully and conservatively 
changed for the better by repeated legislative enactments 
the organization, the equipment, and training of the 
militia until today the most competent officers from all 
over the world pay cheerful tribute to its high ex- 
cellence." 

Yet why should it be so? The average American in 
his private business affairs has no equal in thoroughness, 
earnest attention to detail and business-like methods. 
And who dare say the average American's love of coun- 

lOI 



try is a less compelling motive than his desire to make 
money for himself? God forbid it should be so! For 
if the mercenary, the material, the crass, should ever 
crowd from American hearts the spirit of self-sacrifice 
that moved the men of 1776 and those of 1861, then 
all the preparedness, all the guns, all the battle-fleets our 
billions of wealth can buy and build, will not avail 
against a foe whose hearts are staunch and throb with 
holy devotion for the banner under which they fight. 

But no; it is not that. Today, tomorrow, just as 
yesterday, American fathers and mothers will, if the 
need be, cheerfully surrender their fortunes, their 
homes, their loved ones; offer their all on the altar of 
their country. 

And that is the reason high Heaven cries out against 
the sloth, the carelessness, the criminal negligence that 
has failed to prepare against the time of need. Upon 
the heads of those who have been so blind they would 
not see must be the blood of our sons who will have 
laid down their lives in vain if America does not start 
now earnestly and thoroughly to apply her patriotism. 



102 



CHAPTER V. 

Lessons of the mobilization of the National Guard for duty on 
the Mexican border in the Spring of 1916.— What would 
have happened, had a first-class power, instead of Villa or 
Carranza threatened?— Contrast to mobilization of Swiss 
citizen-soldiers m 1914.— Indifference of American people to 
blame for maction on part of their officials. 

What if it had been a first-class power landing a 

great army of invasion on our shore, instead of Villa 

leading a troop of half-starved bandits into Columbus? 

What would we have done about it? What could 

we have done? 

Can fearful imagination vision what would have 
happened during the frenzied days our War Department 
was endeavoring to mobilize the National Guard? Is 
it a pleasant picture of what might have been ? Is it an 
argument for pacificism? 

How many warnings will it require till the American 
people awaken and prepare to defend their homes in 
that day when they shall be imperilled? 

Contrast the mobilization of the American National 
Guard in 1916 with the mobilization of Switzerland's 
citizen-army in August, 1914! Though not directly 
threatened, the Alpine republic realized the grave danger 
it faced when war was declared among the great powers, 
the little nation forming a most convenient pathway to 
France or to Germany, and no time was lost in prepar- 
ing for eventualities. Within 48 hours after the order 
of mobilization, the Swiss army of 425,060 was drawn 



103 



up to a man, along the German, French, Austrian and 
ItaHan frontiers. 

The fact that no need arose to repel attempted vio- 
lation of Swiss neutrality merely proves the efficacy of 
Swiss preparedness, for no reasonable human being 
familiar with the situation can doubt the certainty that 
one or another of the belligerents would have made use 
of Swiss territory, as that of Belgium, Luxembourg and 
Greece were utilized, were it not for one paramount, 
preventive factor. 

That preventive factor was the sure knowledge in 
the mind of every strategist of the Teutonic or Allied 
forces that the trained-to-the-minute, fully-equipped 
Swiss army stood ready to contest every inch of the 
ground of its native land with whatever foe dared to 
invade, and that the cost of violating Switzerland's neu- 
trality would be far in excess of anything gained by 
such a course, even assuming that the Swiss would final- 
ly have to submit to overwhelming numbers. 

Therefore (to draw the obvious moral) the lighten- 
ing bolt of war, flashing all about her, did not strike 
Switzerland because Switzerland was able to mobilize 
an excellent army numbering more than one-tenth of 
her total population. 

Had Switzerland not been prepared she would have 
unquestionably been drawn, an innocent and unwilling 
victim, into the maelstrom, and ruthlessly trampled upon. 

To go back to where we started, what position for 
defense would the United States have been in had a 
first-rate power, such as Japan, instead of some Mexican 
bandits, menaced her peace and honor in the Spring 
of 1916? 

It was pointed out in the preface to this work that 

104 



the minute the merchant submarine **Deutschland" poked 
her periscope above the surface of Baltimore Bay, after 
a voyage from Germany, the theory that the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans form an impenetrable defense to 
America from invasion, vanished into thin air. Even 
though our navy be built up to the high state of effi- 
ciency and strength it should attain, there will always 
hereafter be the lurking fear that the battle-fleet on 
either coast may be destroyed by enemy submarines and 
the landing of hostile troops rendered an easy under- 
taking, providing there be not drawn up to repel in- 
vasion an army of trained men greater in number than 
any possible attacking force could ever be. 

The thing is not to look for trouble, but to be eter- 
nally ready for trouble and, in that way, do the utmost 
to avert it. Nations are bullies. They think twice be- 
fore they attack the strong, and only the most urgent 
self-necessity will induce any of them to undertake com- 
bat with a power equal in strength. 

But the weak are despised. No scruple halts the 
armed hand of the bully nation from striking a defense- 
less people when it is to her interests to do so. 

The spirit is here among our youth. The sponta- 
neity and enthusiasm with which they answered the 
President's call to mobihze for the Mexican border was 
all that could have been hoped for. They were ready 
to go, anxious to start at once. But they couldn't start 
at once, nor for days, because they had no equipment, 
because no logical scheme of transporting them to the 
scene of mobilization had been laid out, and because 
of other conditions that cried out to high Heaven of 
the utter, shameful and wicked non-preparedness of a 
great and rich nation. 

105 



i 

Had only the splendid haste with which America's 
young men rushed to bring the National Guard regi- 
ments up to zvar strength been in some small measure 
duplicated by those who had had eighteen years, since 
the painful experience of mobilization in 1898, to learn 
the lesson! Would to God America had prepared to 
defend herself with half the zeal her youth displayed in 
offering their services and their lives to defend America! 

The fiasco of mobilization is but one phase of the 
indictment against non-preparedness. Once mobiHzed, 
what are untrained, unhardened men to be expected 
to accomphsh? Major-General Leonard Wood, U. S. A., 
at the time of the Mexican affair expressed strong criti- 
cism of the system which made it necessary, as a rule, 
to double the strength of National Guard regiments by 
the introduction of raw material, mostly uninstructed, 
and requiring a detailed physical examination. 

The observations of Captain T. B. Mott, U. S. A., 
reproduced in length in another chapter, emphasize the 
striking contrast between our militia training system and 
that in vogue in Switzerland. Says Captain Mott : 

*'The process of training of the Swiss Militia is 
exactly the reverse in theory and fact of that in operation 
with our militia. Good performance in the field being 
the whole end and object of military instruction and 
the time being short, the Swiss begin, and we may say 
end, their teaching in the open country." 

Even those members of our National Guard who 
have been long in the militia are unfit, for the most part, 
to undergo the rigors of the soldiers' life. 

Their drill is in armories, except for such work in 
the open as they get during occasional encampments. 
They are never put through long marches, and the high 

106 



percentage of the men dropping exhausted by the way, 
when comparatively short marches were attempted, 
amply tells the tale. 

If the Swiss citizen-soldier were not hardened in 
body so that he can bear up under the manifold hard- 
ships actual service on the field entails, all the tactics 
and marksmanship he learns would be of little use to 
him, and he would be of less use to his country. 

When the various National Guard units left for their 
mobilization points, one-third of them, to estimate con- 
servatively, were raw recruits who had never handled a 
rifle, knew nothing of even the elementary drill regu- 
lations and had not the slightest idea of the rigorous 
service that awaited them in their destined capacity of 
mere border policing force. 

Suppose it had been necessary to hurl those brave 
boys into active service on the field of battle against 
the army of some first-rate power invading our shores ! 
Would not the supine spirit of the American people 
who have tolerated the long and shameful neglect of 
common measures of safety have been chargeable with 
their murder? 

For while, in a republic such as ours, we may fre- 
quently obtain from our chosen lawmakers less than we 
demand, it requires no logician to demonstrate that we 
never will get more than we demand. Because there 
has been, until very recently, only a faint showing of 
popular opinion in favor of preparedness, Congresses 
have provided little in that direction. Had we made it 
plain that we wanted much, no doubt we would have 
been at least the beneficiaries of a compromise that 
granted us a fair share. 

107 



No one seems adequately to have done all he should 
have done. No plan of mobilization had been outlined 
in advance or, if it had, it was not a workable plan. 
Officials had been asleep, yes ; but where was the alarm- 
clock of public conscience and popular demand that 
should have aroused them in time? 

Soldiers ordered to march, and no shoes fit to put 
on their feet! Young men taken from city apartment 
houses and sent to mobilization camps, where they had 
to sleep for nights in the open field because there were 
no tents! Mounts for cavalry and artillery provided 
only just before orders for entrainment to the border 
came ! Office clerks set to drive balky mules ! Such 
things could hardly happen in the ragged army of a 
San Domingan revolutionist. 

Surely, there was little enough to boast of in the 
mobilization for the Mexican border. But if a more 
shameful spectacle than that of the Congress of the 
wealthiest nation in the world refusing to aid the de- 
pendants of National Guardsmen, taken suddenly from 
their employment in civil life and impressed into military 
service, while society women gave pink teas to provide 
the bitter bread of charity for their wives and children, 
it is not chronicled in civilization's annals. 

How different the provisions for aid to the dependents 
of the Swiss, if he has to absent himself for duty ! 

The Military Constitution says in 

''Article 2,2. 

''Adequate provision shall be made for the support of 
families which may come to need in consequence of 
members of families doing service. 

"Such aid shall never be treated as charity. 

108 



"Article 23. 

"It shall come from the municipality in which the 
members of the soldier reside. If they live in a foreign 
country, from their native municipahty. 

"The municipality shall fix the amount of aid and 
take all other measures which are necessary under the 
conditions. 

"It shall report to the Cantonal authority which in 
turn shall forward the report to the Federal Military 
Department. 

"Article 24. 

"Three-fourths of such municipal expenses are de- 
frayed by the Federation, one-fourth by the respective 
Canton." 

Every criticism of our existing, futile system must 
in the end resolve itself into the argument for compulso- 
ry military training of all our able-bodied male citizens. 
National Guard regiments recruited to war strength by 
the enlistment of men who had undergone a short period 
of compulsory military training would help to make up 
an army worthy of America, and fully able to uphold 
the honor of the flag under which it marched. 

Give us such an army, capable of being mobilized in 
the briefest space of time, and you will find no Carranza 
despoiling our countrymen, no Villa burning our towns, 
and no first-class power, whether in the regions of the 
rising nor setting sun, counting on the day when she 
may hurl her armies against our rich shores. 



109 



CHAPTER VI. 

Military training taken as matter of course by Swiss. — Realize 
it upbuilds their bodies as well as fits them to defend 
Fatherland. — Is the sturdy, moral stamina of our forefathers 
disappearing?— Preparedness must keep pace with growth of 
material wealth if we are not to be despoiled. — Swiss military 
system fosters democracy, not militarism. — Captain Mott's ob- 
servations. — Territorial assignment of Swiss troops aid to 
speedy and effective mobilization. — Maneuvers in Switzerland 
train officers to handle large bodies of troops. — Lack of 
opportunities for American generals to maneuver armies. — 
Experience of General McDowell. 

The Swiss does not think of his military training 
as something separate from his ordinary walk of life; 
for him it is a matter of course that he should train for 
the defense of his home, and devote some of his time 
to his country. Not the least reason for the popularity 
of the military system, is the knowledge that military 
training is a great builder of his physique — a sound 
body in which a sound mind can best be cultivated. The 
ten weeks of the first year, and two weeks in each of 
the next eight years seems not at all too great a time 
for the Swiss to devote to his fatherland. 

In their pursuit of material wealth and comfort, a 
rapidly growing number of Americans seem to have no 
time to harden their bodies, to practice self-denial, to 
render themselves fit to bear the burdens of a soldier's 
life should their country need them. We forget that 
we owe the State which guarantees us life, liberty and 
pursuit of happiness, protection with our bodies, if need 
be. Only a citizenry of which every individual is trying 



to contribute to the health, vigor and tenacity of the 
whole is fit to successfully defend and regenerate a na- 
tion. The vigor and vitality of our nation depends not 
on a few outdoor sports or athletics, but on a uniform, 
thorough and efficient physical training, which implants 
discipHne, the highest attribute, not only of a soldier, 
but of manhood. 

What has become of the sturdy pioneer who carved 
and hewed and built with his own strong hands the 
temple of America's greatness as a nation, following 
the successful struggle for independence? The men 
whom history links with the liberation and growth in 
power of the United States were strong in body and 
mind. Where are their counterparts today? Their 
youth and later life were marked by constant struggle 
to obtain a livelihood and to achieve their ideals of liber- 
ty. Not only those men who tower conspicuously in 
our history, but the whole nation, derived its health, its 
vigor, its tenacity from the rugged life of its plain 
citizens. Danger lurked at every turn, danger was met 
always by a courageous heart, a clear mind and a hard- 
ened, trained body. 

What is the picture today? Goldsmith told the sorry 
fate awaiting that nation "where wealth accumulates and 
men decay." Men accumulating wealth, need not decay, 
but they are most likely to do so, unless they set about 
the task of preparing themselves to defend that wealth. 
It is an outstanding truth that the faster a nation's 
resources develop, the more she piles up riches, the 
wider her lines of commerce are flung, the greater 
grows her need for defense against the encroachments 
of jealous rivals. If a nation's preparation for military 
defenses does not keep pace with her commercial and 

III 



industrial expansion, she seals the doom of that very 
prosperity which dominates her existence. 

This is looking at the question purely from a practi- 
cal standpoint. Perhaps it explains the zeal with which 
our great business interests have advocated prepared- 
ness. It should appeal even to those Americans who 
no longer have ideals and whose souls are twisted into 
the shape of the dollar sign. 

But let him look upon it as he will, with eyes that 
see only the necessity of protecting our material wealth 
or with the eyes of the patriot, a lover of his country, 
every American must sooner or later either take the 
precaution an adequate preparedness will afford him, 
or take the bitter consequences of slothful folly. 

The Swiss is a patriot ; also he is a hard-headed 
citizen who knows his field or his factory would not be 
his very long if he were not able to defend it. That 
is his state of mind when, at twenty years of age, he 
presents himself as a recruit. His body is developed 
and hardened. And he is a marksman. Thus equipped 
it is small wonder a few weeks training turn him into 
a good soldier. 

There is no such thing as a military aristocracy in 
Switzerland. Indeed, the Swiss military system is, in 
itself, one of the most potent democratising forces in the 
republic. The Swiss sees the result of militarism on the 
civil life of the nations around them, and they want 
none of it. They want no cast, no strutting, petty tyrants 
in gold lace to oppress them. 

In all Switzerland there are only 189 professional 
army officers and all of them earn their salaries in time 
of peace as instructors in the various military schools. 
The salaries vary from 3,700 francs ($740) for a cap- 

112 



tain to 7,300 francs ($1,460) for a colonel. There being 
no standing army, there is of course no need for more 
professional officers than those required to fill instructors' 
positions. 

The other army officers, pursuing the ordinary walks 
of civilian life, present a splendid illustration of the 
real democracy of the Swiss military system. A colonel 
and a corporal might work side by side in some business 
house, or a private soldier might be the employer of 
his commander. 

Not the least features of Swiss military training 
strengthening the foundations of democracy, is the disci- 
pline to which every Szviss is travned from youth to 
subject himself. Discipline is more needed among a free 
people than among those ruled by an autocrat. Slaves 
can be made to obey force. Freemen must have schooled 
themselves to respond to discipline if they would be for- 
midable as soldiers. 

The Swiss poet, Felix Moeschlin, at present a private 
in the border guard, extols the spirit of discipline as 
exemplified among the Swiss troops. 

*Tn a democracy more than in another nation disci- 
pline is indispensable," he says, "discipline conserves 
strength, insures action instead of talk, lightens labor 

and reduces friction discipline is beauty he 

who can obey himself, his own sublime will, will cheer- 
fully obey someone else because he knows he can ac- 
complish nothing without forbearance and obedience." 

The secret of the popularity of the Swiss system lies 
in the fact that it is not the work of one class or of 
one political party, but the product of gradual develop- 
ment by consent of the whole people, during sixty-seven 
years of experiment. 

113 



It is regrettable that at this moment the issue of 
America's preparedness, an issue that should be like a 
rehgious conviction in the heart of every American, is 
being made the point of difference between two schools 
of politicians. Both of the large political parties have 
a number of men who are for this degree or that degree 
of preparedness, or who are against any preparedness, 
according to the vote-getting properties they believe their 
particular expressions of belief will exercise in their 
respective districts. 

Under her system it costs Switzerland, as has been 
shown in a previous chapter, only $9,000,000 a year to 
have a trained force of nearly 500,000 men available 
for instant call to duty at any time. 

Had we a system similar to that, our yearly Army 
budget would hardly exceed the one of 19 16. 

As far back as 1905 Captain T. B. Mott of the 
U. S. Army made some cogent observations on this sub- 
ject. Portions of his report, dealing with the cost of 
maintaining the Swiss military establishment, the thor- 
ough manner in which Swiss troops are trained and 
the wonderful spirit he found among them follows : 

**The annual appropriations for our Army show that 
each regular American soldier costs 28 times as much 
as his Swiss comrade. 

"To compare the availability of the two forces for 
war is not so easy as to compare the cost, though our 
force of Regulars and Organized Militia taken together 
has about the strength of the Swiss active or elite army. 

"Switzerland can mobilize an army in three days, 
ready in every particular of organization, equipment, 
munition, and transport, to march against the enemy; 
they can mobilize four such corps at one and the same 

114 



time. Just how many days it would require to concen- 
trate in one place 30,000 of our Regulars with all their 
baggage and transport, or how long to assemble four 
such commands of Regulars and militia, it is difficult 
to say, but probably it would be nearer three weeks 
than three days. 

"Comparisons may be odious, but when to maintain 
1,000 men costs 28 times as much in one country as in 
another the relative readiness for war of the two forces 
is worth examining. 

*'It is impossible to spend several weeks, as I have 
done, in daily contact with detachments of the Swiss 
Army engaged in their ordinary daily routine without 
receiving a lasting impression of the willingness and 
devotion of the men and zeal and capacity of the officers. 
The term 'militia army' has given the world a mistaken 
idea of the effectiveness and readiness of this force, 
which I think cannot be judged by the militia standards 
of either America or England. 'Semipermanent army' 
would be a more correct term in view of the severe 
exactions of service, the length of time devoted to field 
training, and the military education of the officers. 

"The progress of training of the Swiss Militia is 
exactly the reverse in theory and fact of that in opera- 
tion with our militia. Good performance in the field 
being the whole end and object of military instruction 
and the time being short, the Swiss begin, and we may 
say end, their teachings in the open country. 

"After a thorough course in the school of the soldier 
and squad, work out in the open fields is begun and 
the recruit comes face to face with the primitive prob- 
lems of a campaign and learns at the very start 'what 
he is here for.' He is taught to march correctly in 

IIS 



column, form line and march in line, but these exercises 
are made an incident of going to and coming from 
'work.' The real business of his life, he learns, is to 
march steadily under a heavy pack, shoot straight, take 
cover, and obey his squad leader. The candidate-officers' 
and junior-officers' chief thought is to do outpost and 
patrol duty effectively, to read the map correctly, to 
post their men advantageously, and to solve on the 
ground minor tactical problems. They are questioned 
and noted on these points and they realize that their 
advancement depends upon the intelligence they show 
in the presence of actual though elementary mihtary 
facts. 

''After three weeks thus spent the recruit puts in a 
week at battalion exercises with longer marches and 
two nights in bivouac with outpost duty at night, fol- 
lowed by exercises all the forenoon and a march home 
in the evening. The fifth and sixth weeks entire are 
spent on a long march in rough country, where the bat- 
talion acts for the most part as if in the presence of an 
enemy, maneuvering by day, establishing outposts at 
night; and conducting combat exercises with ball car- 
tridges (90 per man). The contrast between this sort 
of militia training and that seen in America or England 
is most marked. The physiological effect on the men 
is certainly important. The first conceptions of the real 
business of a soldier, his whole reason for existence, 
are apt to produce a lasting impresson on a young man. 
In our service the recruit's first enthusiasms are con- 
centrated (and dissipated) in the grind of barrackyard 
drill, where no man need or is expected to use his head. 
As these same recruits, whether fourth-class cadets or 
regular enlisted men, grow old in the service and in 

116 



turn have to instruct others, the ideas crystallized in 
them during their first training prevail, and instinctively 
they give importance to the things which have been 
most deeply impressed upon them — judge of regiments 
by close-order performances and seek to have their ov^n 
excel in a similar way, while work in the open, amongst 
farmhouses, villages, fields and woods, seems a thing 
quite apart, and occasional occurrence in no way inti- 
mately bound up in a soldier's routine existence. 

"In Switzerland there are no parades or reviews or 
drills beyond the company or battalion. These things 
would doubtless be done in some measure if there existed 
a permanent army, but they zvould ahuays come last and 
he least thought of, because through the push of stern 
necessity the Szviss has sifted out the absolute essentials 
to fitness for war, and these essentials, field exercises 
and good shooting^ he zvorks at to the exclusion of every- 
thing else. 

"A man cannot be taught billiards on a dining-table, 
nor football in a gymnasium, nor hunting in a riding 
hall. He also cannot be taught minor tactics on a mili- 
tary reservation, however large, and the Swiss do not 
attempt such impossible feats. 

''The Swiss farmer is the most independent and 
jealous person on the globe, but he has voluntarily 
yielded to supreme military necessity and voted to let 
troops maneuver over his fields: and he greatly enjoys 
getting a few francs for a little damage done to his 
fence or pasture." 

One great advantage in the organization of Switzer- 
land's army is its territorial assignment and distribution. 
The first and second divisions are recruited from dis- 
tricts along or near the French border, the third and 

"7 



fourth from along the German border, the fifth on the 
Austrian, and the sixth on the Italian frontier. That 
not only allows a very quick mobilization at any danger 
point, but in peace time, by combined maneuvers, a prob- 
lematical invasion can be carefully conducted and provi- 
sion for repelling a real invasion considered from all 
angles. Annual maneuvers with large bodies of troops 
are responsible for much of the efficiency and mobility 
of the Swiss Army. 

Back in 1852 the first camp of 30,000 troops took 
place in Thun. For the last twenty years the fall ma- 
neuvers of parts of the Swiss army assemble annually 
some 60,000 men of all branches. 

That gives the Army Corps, Division, Brigade, Regi- 
ment and Battalion Commanders an opportunity to gain 
experience in the handling of large bodies of troops, it 
promotes the spirit of cooperation among officers and 
men and determines whether they are capable to hold 
their positions. 

The wide distribution of the sections of our Regular 
Army and the upkeep of ancient military posts which 
have had no strategical value since Indian warfare days 
are obstacles to the assembling and maneuvering of even 
a small force. We are today confronted with exactly 
the same conditions as prevailed at the beginning of the 
Civil War. Our higher officers are unable to bring to- 
gether for maneuvers anything like the number of troops 
which, in war time, they would have to direct from the 
outset. 

What General McDowell said in his testimony be- 
fore the Committee on the conduct of the Civil War 
could as well have been spoken in 1916 before the Mili- 
tary Afl^airs Committee of the United States' Senate : 

118 



" 'I had no opportunity to test my machinery, to 
move it around and see whether it would work smoothly 
or not/ General McDowell stated. 'In fact, such was 
the feeling, that when I had one body of eight regiments 
of troops reviewed together, the general censured me 
for it, as if I was trying to make a show. I did not 
think so. There was not a man there who had ever 
maneuvered troops in large bodies. There was not one 
in the Army. I did not believe there was one in the 
whole country. At least I knew there was no one there 
who had ever handled 30,000 troops. I had seen them 
handled abroad in reviews and marches, but I had never 
handled that number, and no one here had. I wanted 
very much a little time, all of us wanted it. We did 
not have a bit of it.' " 



119 



CHAPTER VII. 

Physical training of Swiss boy is the foundation of Switzerland's 
preparedness. — Public schools equipped for gymnastics system 
uniform throughout country. — Military training without 
arms. — Male public-school teachers are the instructors. — All 
under Federal supervision. — Physical training the national 
sport. — "Turnfeste" universally participated in. — Aim is to 
train classes. — Our athletics stimulate individual rivalry. — 
Statistics prove value of training. — Swiss boy learns to obey 
orders in physical training classes,, hence develops into the 
best disciplined of all soldiers. 

Character building, as well as body building, is a 
prime object of physical training as taught in the Swiss 
public schools; and mental development depends largely 
on physical development, and keeps pace with it. 

The Swiss, in laying the only adequate foundation 
for the system of national defense that is the marvel of 
the world, have created a race of men, strong, virile, 
dexterous and well-formed in body, mind and character. 

A uniform system must be at the root of successful 
physical training, just as physical training must be uni- 
form throughout a nation if, thereby, that nation's 
youths are to be fitted, when they reach maturity, to be- 
come with only a few weeks compulsory military train- 
ing, well equipped defenders of their country. 

That a Swiss soldier, in spite of his short service, 
is as worthy a fighting unit as any of those of the great 
military powers, can be attributed to the systematic 
physical training he received as a boy in the public 
school, that and nothing else. 

At the age of eight every Swiss schoolboy begins his 

120 



program of physical training. The course consists of 
the practice of exercises, selected after long experience, 
and applied in keeping with their value as regards a 
systematic, harmonious training of the body and develop- 
ment of its organs. 

It progresses from easy performances for the boy of 
eight to difficult problems for the boy of fifteen in setting 
up exercises, calisthenics, marching and running, work 
on horizontal bars, parallel bars, climbing poles and 
horses, jumping, vaulting, and all other applied gym- 
nastics. This work gradually takes up more and more 
of the boy's time. The boy of eight begins with two 
hours a week, while he of fifteen devotes one hour every 
day to such practice. 

The exercises and drills are conducted out of doors 
whenever possible. 

Every school yai'd has stationary horizontal bars, 
parallel bars, climbing apparatus, and side horses. 

The execution of exercises by classes or teams, so 
that the work is performed simultaneously, with snap 
and vigor, is considered a great factor in discipline and 
is, therefore, extensively practiced. 

Physical training is the only subject in Swiss schools 
under the supervision of the Federal government. The 
whole system is uniform and there is only one primer 
for all the instruction. 

The most important factor in every lesson of physical 
training is the military training without arms in absolute 
accordance with the army regulations. About one fourth 
of every period of instruction is taken up by exercises 
like: Position of attention, the rests, facing, steps and 
marchings, school of squads, alignments, taking distance 
and intervals, oblique march, turning on moving and fixed 



pivots, open and closed formation in squads, platoons 
and companies. 

All this Federal physical instruction is given by male 
teachers of the Swiss public schools. The school-teacher 
is the primary military instructor of every Swiss boy, 
and to make him proficient to teach in this subject he 
takes, while at the teachers' college, a rigid four years' 
course in physical training along with other lines of 
study. 

The examination as to his fitness to instruct, after 
completing his course, is held by government inspect- 
ors. Every year an inspection and examination of all 
boys* classes and grades is undertaken by the Federal 
examiners. 

Systematic physical training is the national sport in 
Switzerland, and the boys and young men of the Alpine 
republic band together in athletic clubs which encourage 
rivalry among the teams in performing exercises requir- 
ing exactness, gracefulness, strength and will-power. 

*'Turnfeste" or meets of physical training clubs are 
held for districts of Counties, Cantons (States) and the 
Federation, and on such occasions one who sees can 
realize the wonderful achievements of the Sv/iss system 
of school training. In 1910, at Basel, 15,000 young 
Swiss in their athletic uniforms simultaneously executed 
gymnastics exercises. The promptness and the snap 
with which the movements were gone through was a 
most inspiring sight. 

Physical and military training have the effect of in- 
culcating democracy and at the same time teach the bene- 
fit of system, organisation and a definite purpose in the 
nation's defense to the social, political and business units 
of our citizenship. 

122 






'%2 'Ikml 




We can hardly train the minds of men to work al- 
ways for one aim or in complete unity, but we can easily 
train the bodies to work in unison, and with precision. 
By doing so we will show the results from disciplined, 
cooperative work of men's bodies, the health of which 
is an unqualified necessity in the development of a sound 
mind. 

The impression on the unlooker such Turn meet 
makes gives rise to enthusiasm and patriotism. Look 
at them charging forward! and 30,000 strong arms cut 
the air with lightning precision. Such a spectacle imbues 
all of us with confidence in what those arms would do 
if raised for the defense of the Republic. But not 
merely does stimulation of the people's courage and con- 
fidence result from such a performance; it bears also a 
healthful reaction for the individual athlete. 

It must be sublime to each of them to know his 
15,000 comrades actuated by the same spirit, exercising 
the same strength and the willingness to sacrifice their 
splendid bodies on the altar of their country. The Szviss 
gymnastic meet inculcates self -discipline and promotes a 
sense of duty to protect, but not to provoke. 

No other nation has such a highly developed system 
of physical training as Switzerland. The Swiss Turners 
frequently take the highest prizes at the contests of the 
great German Turnfeste and Fetes gymnastiques of 
France, keeping pace with their compatriot sharp- 
shooters who won the highest honors in 17 out of 18 
international shoots. 

It is hardly necessary to point out the good resulting 
from such thorough traindng. The boys acquire obedi- 
ence and subjection to discipline, two qualities that are 
just as helpful in civilian life as in that of a soldier. 



123 



The great aim of the Swiss system of physical edu- 
cation is to train classes, teams — large groups of boys 
so as to implant a cooperative spirit, a spirit of "one 
for all and all for one." 

The tendency of American athletics is to stimulate 
individual rivalry while the Swiss gymnastic system aims 
at a collective training and team rivalry. Every indi- 
vidual of a team is made to feel that if he fails in the 
performance, the work of the whole suffers and the 
team falls behind. The Swiss knows that only the 
strictest discipHne and precise cooperation of every mem- 
ber of a gymnastic section leads to success. 

And is not the State only a big club, a team, the 
welfare of which depends on the spirit of organization 
and cooperation that lives in the individual citizens? A 
State can only succeed if every member is fit to do his 
part for the good of the whole, and what cannot be 
done if a spirit of rampant individualism prevails. 
Every citizen who realizes his own ultimate success de- 
pends on that of his neighbor has a conception of good 
citizenship. 

That the value of methodical physical training is not 
an imaginary or exaggerated one, but scientifically and 
practically proved, the following facts show : 

Of the young Swiss who reach their 20th year and 
have to pass a physical and mental examination for 
acceptance to the army, about 63^ per cent, are ac- 
cepted and 14 per cent, permanently rejected for defects. 
The remaining 22^ per cent, are rejected for re-exami- 
nation a year later, for such reasons as insufficient 
height or insufficient chest measurement. 

The military authorities send these young men 
through a special physical training course for the fol- 

124 



lowing year, and when they come for physical test the 
next year they are tall enough or their chests have ex- 
panded. That is an illustration of the practical and 
scientific value of physical training, of which the much 
dreaded military training without arms is the most im- 
portant branch. 

The Swiss government early recognized the value of 
physical training in schools as a means of preparedness. 
Article 102 of the Swiss Military Law makes it com- 
pulsory for each Canton to see to it that all males of 
school age receive physical training, and further provides 
that the Federal Government issue the course of the 
instruction for physical training teachers, and generally 
supervise the physical training of the boys. The danger 
that would have lain in permitting different systems to 
be in vogue in various Cantons was thus avoided. 

The necessity for uniformity and system in any ef- 
forts to develop the body was pointed out by Adolph 
Spiess, pioneer in the realm of school gymnastics. He 
set about painstakingly to select from the many exercises, 
those that were of real value, to separate the wheat 
from the chaff. Pupils and successors of Spiess fol- 
lowed the example their mentor had set. They assidu- 
ously continued to select, separate and classify the va- 
rious exercises, with the object of determining which 
were the most beneficial and to what ages of boyhood 
they were suited. 

At Basel, Switzerland, in 1870, Alfred Maul, Wilhelm 
Jenny and Frederick Iselin, all authorities on gymnastics, 
culminated a long period of exhaustive study, experi- 
ment and observation by producing a schedule laying 
down the ages at which boys should be instructed in 
each class of exercises. 

125 



A Manual of Physical Training 

AND 

Preparatory Military Instruction 

For Schools of the United States 

A MODIFIED SWISS SYSTEM INTENDED TO 

PROVIDE FOR THE STRONG COMMON 

NATIONAL DEFENSE OF AMERICA 



BY 
FREDERICK A. KUENZLI 

Assistant Appraiser Port of New York 

Graduate of Teacher's College of Wettingen, Switzerland, and of the 

ifecole Polytechnique F6d6rale at Zurich, Switzerland 

Formerly an Officer of the Swiss Army 

AND 

HENRY PANZER 

Maitre de Gyranastique ; Graduate of Berne, Switzerland ; Grossherzog 

liche Turnlehrer-Bildungsanstalt, Karlsruhe, Germany ; Baron Posse's 

Normal School of Gymnastics, Boston, Mass. ; Member of 

Massachusetts Medical Gymnastic Association, 1904 

Teacher of Swedish Gymnastics and Lecturer on 

Kinesiology at Chautauqua, N. Y., 1916 



WITH ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



Neto gork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1916 

All rights reserved 



This work, while it did not yet devise a system devoid 
of faults, was an important step forward, and is a 
mile-stone on the way to the present perfection of Swiss 
physical instruction. 

Following the research of Maul, Jenny and IseHn, 
physiology came to be more and more a factor in scien- 
tific physical training. Physiological demands laid stress 
on exercises of rapidity, rather than those requiring 
force or skill, and there soon spread a more thorough 
understanding of the effect of the different exercises 
upon heart and lung action, circulation of the blood, 
metabolism, nutrition and other organic functions. 

Not the least of the accomplishments of the numerous 
students of the subject who gradually developed the 
Swiss system of physical training was the choice of exer- 
cises which tend to correct oppression of respiration and 
deformation of the spine, often resulting from the school- 
room posture. 

Instruction in physical training has been compulsory 
in all Swiss schools since 1874. The Federal govern- 
ment published its first manual in 1898 ; the manual was 
revised to include improvements in the system. 

A complete survey of the system and the manner in 
which instruction was being carried on, with the aim 
of bringing it to the highest possible state of perfection, 
was undertaken by the government in 1903. 

A commission composed of twelve masters of gym- 
nastics and a representative of the Military Department 
was named to investigate and formulate recommenda- 
tions for improvements. 

For nine years this commission pursued its labors, 
adopted whatever was of value from the German and 
Swedish systems and, by eliminating the useless or harm- 

127 



ful and adding exercises of merit, raised the Swiss 
system to the highest efficiency. The new manual, em- 
bodying these changes, was published in 1912 in the Ger- 
man language, in 19 14 in the French, and in 191 5 in 
Itahan. * 

It is the subjection to discipline instilled in the minds 
of the Swiss boy at school that makes that boy, when 
grown, a good soldier. And, after all, despite our 
friends who say warfare is no longer a struggle of men, 
it is the man who counts. 

Homer Lea in his wonderful work, "The Valor of 
Ignorance," speaks truly: 

"Warfare, either ancient or modern, has never been 
nor will ever be mechanical. There is no such possi- 
bility as the combat of instruments. It is the soldier that 
brings about victory or defeat. The knowledge of com- 
manders and the involuntary comprehension and obedi- 
ence to orders is what determines the issue of battles. 
As the instruments of warfare become more intricate, 
the discipline and 'esprit de corps' must be increased 
accordingly." 

There is the crux of the matter. The Swiss boy 
learns to "involuntarily comprehend and obey orders" 
in his physical training classes at school. You can bend 
the sapling, but not the tree. The lesson the Swiss 
learns as a boy he never forgets. 

Unfortunately, the feature of the Swiss system that 
has been most generally dwelt upon in the past is that 
compelling military service from every male adult who 



* The Author of this book with Henry Panzer, Director of 
physical training, published a "Manual of Physical Training and 
Preparatory Military Instruction for Schools of the United 
States." This work is along the lines of the Swiss system and 
has been adopted by several cities of the United States. 

128 



is physically and mentally fit, and exacting a tax of ex- 
emption from the unfit. 

Because the obligatory military service of the Swiss 
is extremely short, when contrasted with that of the 
great European powers, and yet the military efficiency 
of the Swiss is as great or greater than that of the sol- 
dier of Germany or France, where three consecutive 
years must be spent in the army, many people are at- 
tracted to it. 

But these same superficial advocates of the Swiss 
system miss the real point; the vital, underlying cause 
of Swiss efficiency escapes them, when they do not stop 
to realize it depends not on the short periods of com- 
pulsory service in the army, but on the foundation that 
every Swiss boy receives in the physical training courses 
in the public schools. 

// we in America are convinced that a system similar 
to the Szviss system would he a great addition to our 
national defense, then let us begin zvith the foundation of 
the hulding, not the roof. 

Swiss physical training inculcates in the boyish mind 
the instinct to instantly obey the spoken word of 
command. 

A good soldier must possess that instinct. 

Swiss physical training hardens and develops the 
body, renders the mind alert and implants in the youth's 
character the determination to do things, and do them 
right. Those are requisite attributes of a soldier. 

Swiss physical training instructs the boy in the ele- 
ments of military drill, and he is still familiar with 
them when, at 20 years of age, he reports to the recruit- 
ing office and undergoes a few weeks service and ma- 
neuvering in the fields. 

129 



Because he did become familiar with mihtary drill 
as a schoolboy, it requires only a few weeks, instead of 
three years, as in other countries, to make a competent 
soldier out of him. 

That fact alone suffices to demonstrate that the Swiss 
system does not foster militarism, but rather acts as a 
barrier against it. 

Switzerland had to be prepared if her national exist- 
ence was to be maintained. She could have prepared, 
as have other powers, by enforcing a long period of 
universal military service. She chose instead to prepare 
her youths in school when the time thus spent would 
mean no economic loss to either themselves or the 
country. 

America stands face to face with the problem. 
Either would be adequate for the needs of prepared- 
ness ; but the one is the way of despotism, the other 
that of a free people. One would work untold hard- 
ships on the citizens and hamper the economic develop- 
ment of the country. 

The other way would instill in the boy a yearning 
for the day when, as a man, he would be called upon 
to sacrifice a little time and eflfort for the Republic. 

The result of this system in Szvitzerland speaks for 
itself. With no standing army, the Alpine republic 
is, nevertheless, prepared to the minute. Where else on 
earth does a similar condition obtain? Is there any logic- 
al reason why it should not obtain in America? We 
have the material — our boys. We have the facilities — 
our public schools. We have the need — our lack of 
preparedness. 

We have the example — Switzerland. 



130 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Cadet corps complement physical instruction in Swiss schools. — 
Almost universal, even where it is voluntary. — Boy gains 
rudiments of military drill and tactics and learns to shoot. — 
Natural sprit of youth utilized to advantage of boyhood and 
the nation. — Awaken keener interest in study of history. — 
Tactical lessons in account of Bunker Hill.— Rules and re- 
sults of cadet corps system in Langnau. — Rifle practice.— 
Cadet corp5 develop both body and character. 

Second only to the physical training they receive as 
a part of the public school curriculum in the prepared- 
ness of Swiss boys, is the cadet corps service they under- 
go. In some places such service is compulsory, in others 
voluntary; but everywhere it is almost universal among 
boys of secondary schools, so firmly has the passion for 
preparedness taken hold of the Swiss people. The re- 
sults of the cadet corps system fully justify its existence 
in Switzerland, and speak louder than could any words 
in arguing for the adoption of a similar plan in the 
United States. 

Along with his physical training in school the Swiss 
boy receives instructions in the rudiments of military 
drill without arms. In the cadet corps he takes military 
drills zifith arms, in the open field where he can become 
proficient in extended order and light tactics, and learns, 
besides, to handle a rifle and qualify as a marksman. 

Why are we so timid about having our boys taught 
to stand at attention, to march, to run, to align, to form 
squads, to drill in closed and open formation? 

Why are we so laughingly, childishly afraid to teach 
our boys to handle a rifle, if they volunteer to learn? 

131 



How many are there among us who, when boys, did not 
spend hours every week playing soldier? 

Why not utilize this spirit of our youngsters for the 
good of our country? 

Why not lead the enthusiasm for charge and self- 
defense, for shooting arrows, brandishing wooden 
swords, shouldering guns, into channels of systematic 
training under expert supervision with real weapons ? 

Every boy likes a uniform because of its attractive- 
ness and, to a certain extent, its democracy. The cadet, 
like the soldier, wants to be seen; therefore he does not 
confine his activity to gallery ranges and gyms, but 
marches through the streets behind the martial drum. 
He wants his exercise in the field, he wants his target 
practice and to fight sham battles, and the cadet of the 
near future will want to dig trenches. The cadet will 
attract the boy standing on the curb, watching others 
like himself marching to the strains of patriotic music, 
garbed in natty uniforms and with shouldered guns, and 
will be straightway filled with the desire to join a cadet 
corps himself. 

History instills the root of patriotism. The descrip- 
tion of the deeds of our forefathers, their struggles in 
the molding of the Union, their sense of righteousness, 
their spirit of independence and liberty, their determi- 
nation to protect with the sword, if necessary, the in- 
tegrity and progress of the Nation, their zeal to build up 
legislation, agriculture, industry and commerce produces 
an inspiring effect in the heart of the boy. The con- 
viction that by the deeds of the great men in the life 
of the Union and by the cheerful support given them, 
we are enabled to enjoy today the citizenship of the 
greatest nation on earth, awakes admiration, thankful- 

132 



ness, and love for the land and its people — in other 
words, creates patriotism. 

Immediately the boy desires to follow the example, 
fashion his walk in life after that of one of the Nation's 
great men who contributed to the honor of the State. 
An able-bodied^ physically strong man, with a sound and 
open mind, is the ideal citizen. The man who is a use- 
ful servant to Uncle Sam in time of peace and an ef- 
fective defender in time of war, is a real American. 

To the schoolboy who receives military training 
United States history has a much greater interest and 
stirs his patriotic impulses much more, than the one 
without a cadet's training, for whom history is generally 
a mass of dates and a description of military happenings 
he does not understand. The whole War of Independ- 
ence from the Battle of Bunker Hill to the crowning 
victory of Yorktown is one lesson after another for 
our boys as to the value of military training. The initial 
contest between the British and our minute-men and 
militia at Bunker Hill in itself bears the foundation for 
a manual on tactics. 

The historian tells us, that at the council of war 
which decided upon the occupation of Bunker Hill, 
Putnam said: "The Americans are never afraid of their 
heads, they only think of their legs; shelter them and 
they will fight forever." Putnam expressed thereby a 
military principle, the truthfulness of which every one 
of our wars emphasized and which holds good to our 
present day. 

When the schoolboy reads what a magnificent specta- 
cle it was for the Americans to see 3,000 picked British 
veterans marching up hill in solid columns, their bayo- 
nets gleaming, and of Prescott's order: "Don't fire until 

133 



you see the whites of their eyes," as a cadet he assimi- 
lates and appHes simple tactical problems and draws the 
conclusions : 

1. It was wrong for the English troops to march 
in closed formation when exposed to the fire of an 
enemy. 

2. The Americans, seeing the mistake of the enemy, 
kept cool and did not bang away at the on marching 
Britishers, but waited for the command to fire, which 
proves that they were well-disciplined troops. 

3. Prescott showed an officer's good judgment and 
tactical knowledge by giving the famous order, manifest- 
ing thereby that the fire is to be used whenever it is 
most effective and a surprise. 

4. Prescott's order was short, clear, and to the point, 
as military orders have to be. He did not confuse his 
men with figures as to the distance they should fire at 
the enemy, neither did he distract the concentration of 
the mind of his men to that sublime moment of firing 
and surprise, by giving long-winded advice. 

When Stark was urged to quicken the step of his 
men, when they came under artillery fire on the way 
to the breastworks, he replied : "One fresh man in action 
is worth ten fatigued ones," teaching his fellow officers 
that preventing a probable loss of his own troops was 
not as important as to do the greatest possible damage to 
the enemy. 

Furthermore we are told that when the English, with 
fine pluck, made a third attack, the Americans found 
their ammunition gone and were compelled to use their 
guns as clubs, for they had no bayonets. What was 
the cause of their shortage in ammunition? More than 
probably because the Americans thought that they had 

134 



enough for the emergency. They were not prepared. 
And the lack of bayonets was also a sign of un- 
preparedness. 

Whether it was ignorance as to the necessity for 
more powder and of having bayonets or whether the 
lack of material caused the unfortunate condition, is now 
immaterial, but it bears the lesson that: The state of 
unpreparedness caused a battle conducted by excellent 
officers and brave men to be a defeat for the Americans 
insofar as the British succeeded in taking Breed's Hill, 
and thereby made possible their remaining in Boston. 
The lesson of the Battle of Bunker Hill is only one ex- 
ample of the manifold benefits the students of history 
and the schoolboy can derive if he is, by the medium 
of military training, able to draw conclusions valuable 
to him personally and to his beloved country in general. 

In the Civil War of 1861-65, the statistics of the War 
Department prove that less than 25% of those enlisted 
were men of 21 years of age and over, that Boys won 
that war that made us a united people. Of the total en- 
listment of 5,175,320; 681,044 were men of from 22 to 
45 years of age and over; 2,334,478 were boys from 10 
to 18 years of age, and 2,139,798 were young men from 
18 to 22 years of age. 

A good insight into the workings of the cadet corps 
system in Switzerland may be learned from the rules 
adopted for the corps, service in which is compulsory 
for the secondary schoolboys of the town of Langnau 
in the Canton of Bern, Boys in the elementary classes 
who have reached the age of eleven may join the cadet 
corps in Langnau, but are not compelled to do so. 

Only a medical certificate of disability will suffice 
to gain a boy dispensation from his three years' cadet 

135 



corps service. Expenses incidental to a pupil's partici- 
pation in cadet corps training are borne by the munici- 
palities in the event of his being unable to aiford the 
necessary outlay. 

Instructors of the Langnau cadet corps, as in all 
others in Switzerland, are men holding commissions in 
the Swiss army. A cadet corps commission recommends 
the instructors to be appointed, fixes their salaries and 
adopts the cadet corps budget. 

General supervision of instruction and training is 
another duty of this commission, and it also appoints 
officers and non-commissioned officers from the ranks of 
thiC cadets, after consideration of a report from the 
school faculty on the qualification of the boys. Arms, 
uniforms and other equipment are prescribed by the 
commission. 

Cadets are subject to general rules of good discipline. 
Absence from instruction, which takes place between one 
and five o'clock on afternoons when regular school 
classes are not in session, is dealt with under the school 
rules governing absence. 

Instructors are empowered to inflict discipHnary 
punishment for grave offenses, but it is provided that 
such shall not exceed three hours' confinement in the 
daytime. 

Applications to have the cadet corps participate in 
parades or other public functions are passed on by the 
Board of Education. It is provided, however, that the 
cadet corps shall never be called out for police duty or 
any other sort of service except cadet corps instruction. 

It should gratify those opposed to military instruction 
for its own sake to know that the official statement out- 
lining the aims of the Langnau cadet corps characterizes 

136 



the military organisation of the corps as a means, rather 
than an end. 

"Purely military aims remain in the background," 
this prospectus reads, "the main purpose of the strict 
discipline in vogue being to attain the requisite mobility 
of so large a body of boys." 

■ "Cadet corps training compliments the physical train- 
ing received within the schools," continues this exposition 
of the system. "Its aims are to give the boys physical 
exercise in the open air, the benefit of outdoor life in 
general, develop their self-control and resoluteness, and 
imbue them with the spirit of cooperation. A good ap- 
pearance, correct posture and gentlemanly deportment are 
strikingly visible results of cadets corps training." 

The cadet corps consists of infantry, complemented 
by a fife and a drum corps. The commission has the 
authority to add other branches, with the consent of 
the Board of Education, if it be deemed advisable. 
Cadets are taught to comport themselves courteously to- 
ward their comrades and adults, they are expected to 
present themselves for drill with prescribed equipment 
and neat appearance and to obey their superiors promptly 
and cheerfully. They are permitted to wear their uni- 
forms at other times then when exercising, but are 
strictly forbidden to use their rifles or sabres outside 
training hours. 

The organization of cadet corps is modelled after 
that of the Swiss Army, boys who have reached their 
seventh school year being eligible to be made non-com- 
missioned officers, and those in their eighth year com- 
missioned officers. A cadet's rank does not, however, 
permit him to employ the corresponding military title 
outside, nor are cadet officers authorized to impose any 

137 



punishment on their subordinates. Violation of the rules 
must be reported by them to the instructor. Cadets do 
not tender salute to their superiors except while at train- 
ing. The instructors are likewise required to investigate 
any complaints by citizens in regard to the conduct of 
cadets. 

For shooting exercises the cadets use a miniature 
model of the Swiss Army rifle. On August 20, 191 5, 
the Military Department adopted a revised course to 
govern the shooting program of cadet corps. It consists 
of preparatory exercises and rifle shooting practice. 

Summarized, it is as follows : 

A. Preparation. 

a. Preparatory physical exercises, as given in the manu- 
al of physical training. 

b. Loading, aiming and firing, according to manual of 
arms and firing manual. 

c. Knowledge of rifle necessary to its handling, use 
and care. 

If the cadet is able to aim, and properly release 
triggers he may commence with the firing. 

At least 30 hours should be devoted to the foregoing 
preparatory exercises. 

B. Rifle Shooting. 
Rifle shooting comprises: 

a. Practicing. 

b. Tests. 

By practicing the cadet must gain confidence in him- 
self and in his rifle so that he may be able to fulfill 
the requirements of the tests. 

138 



For each firing class an average of 20 cartridges per 
cadet shall be available for practicing, of which at least 
15 should be used by every boy. 

A minimum of 5 shots is to be fired in prone position 
with supported barrel. For support, pieces of sod, sacks 
with sand, may be used. 

A cadet shall not be permitted to take the tests until 
a good result is to be expected. If necessary, practice 
shots may be repeated. 

The following tests, at 5 shots each, shall form the 
main shooting exercises. 

Course I. 

Exercise. Range. Target. Position. Score Minimum. 

1. 100 meters A prone 9 points, 4 hits 

2. 100 meters A kneehng 9 points, 4 hits 

3. 200 meters A prone (sup- 

ported barrel) 8 points, 4 hits 







Course IL 




Exercise 


Range. 


Target. 


Position. 


Score Minimum. 


I. 


200 meters 


A 


prone 


9 points, 4 hits 


2. 


200 meters 


A 


kneeling 


9 points, 4 hits 


3. 


200 meters 


B 


prone 


7 points, 3 hits 


4- 


300 meters 


A 


prone (sup- 





ported barrel) 9 points, 4 hits 

Good marksmen may shoot I (3) and II (4) prone, 
without support. 

All cadets must first pass Test I. If the minimum 
score is not obtained the test shall be repeated. In case 
of failure the second time, the cadet shall go back to 

139 



the preparatory exercises and then to repetition of the 
first test. 

Only after successfully passing a test shall the cadet 
be permitted to try the sucCeding one. No one shall be 
permitted to any test more than three times. 

The tests of Course II are for the second year and 
only for those boys who passed successfully the tests 
of Course I, all others must repeat tests of Course I. 
Those that pass successfully the tests of Course II may 
shoot the tests for boys of the "Armed preparatory 
Course" (Course III). 

As a rule no cadet shall shoot more than 15 shots 
per day. The scores of the tests are to be recorded in 
the score card. 

For the practice exercises only the number of shots 
need to be recorded. 

The cadet corps system in vogue throughout Switzer- 
land has worked wonders moulding the boys of the na- 
tion into men, fit in every respect to fight the battle of 
life successfully, and to fight successful battles for their 
country, too, should need arise. 

Such a system is not militarism; it is just the result 
of the hard common sense of the people who instituted 
it, a quality sadly lacking among the gentry who roll 
their eyes in horror every time it is suggested that 
American public schools set about the business of manu- 
facturing red-blooded manhood out of the youthful ma- 
terial placed in their charge. 

Cadet corps training imbues a boy with a high sense 
of honor, it usually relieves his mind of the idea that 
he ought to be a bully or a rowdy, and it develops his 
body. It requires a peculiarly twisted mentality to dis- 
cern harm in such a program of accomplishment as that. 

140 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Swiss Cadet Corps training and Physical Training in 
the Public Schools of the City of Hoboken, N. J.— 
"United States Public School Cadets First Regiment, 
Hoboken, N. J." 

— By A. J. Demarest, Superintendent of Schools. 

The wave of enthusiasm for adequate preparedness 
which swept this country during the 64th session of 
Congress took a practical turn in the City of Hoboken 
on February 29th, 1916, when Mayor Patrick R. Griffin, 
desirous of placing his City in the first ranks of those 
doing their share toward national preparedness, issued 
a call to two hundred representative citizens to assemble 
at the City Hall for the purpose of discussing the domi- 
nant question of national preparedness. 

The main feature of that remarkable gathering of 
patriotic men was an illustrated lecture by Frederick 
A. Kuenzli on ''Switzerland prepared and at peace, a 
model for the United States." 

After picturing the democratic compulsory service 
which gives Switzerland immunity against invasion, 
Mr. Kuenzli said, ''Unfortunately, the feature of the 
Swiss System that has been most generally dwelt upon 
in the past is that compelling military service from every 
male adult who is physically and mentally fit, and exact- 
ing a tax of exemption from the unfit. Because the 
obligatory military service of the Swiss is extremely 
short, when contrasted with that of the great European 
powers, and yet the military efficiency of the Swiss is 

141 



as great or greater than that of the soldier of Germany 
or France, where three consecutive years must be spent 
in the army, many people are attached to it. But these 
same superficial advocates' of the Sv^riss System miss the 
real point; the vital underlying cause of Swiss efficiency 
escapes them when they do not stop to realize it depends 
not on the short periods of compulsory service in the 
army, but on the foundation that every Swiss boy re- 
ceives in the physical training courses in the public 
schools and the military training in school cadets corps 
and preparatory courses." 

The emphasis with which the lecturer pointed out 
the benefit of school physical training and military train- 
ing for the future manhood appealed to all present at 
the meeting; especially, the following points stood out 
in favor of the Swiss System of training for boys : 

a. The American Public School, the pillar of exist- 
ence of our Republic, the institution which makes men, 
the sower of patriotism, must also be the instrument 
through which the future citizen is trained to protect 
the State should necessity arise. 

b. A sound mind can only be developed to its ma- 
turity in a sound body, therefore the education of mind 
and body should be recognized as associate functions in 
the school curriculum, neither being neglected at the cost 
of the other. 

c. Physical and Military Training make for the 
physical well-being of the boy; they implant obedience 
and discipline, and they prepare the boy so that he be- 
comes an able defender of the Stars and Stripes. 

d. The school cadet corps training has a demo- 
cratizing influence in that any boy can become a cadet 

142 



because the equipment and instruction are furnished 
gratis. Private cadet corps are generally an expensive 
matter and therefore open only to sons of well-to-do 
parents. 

e. The supervision of the cadet corps is in the hands 
of the public authorities. The same people we choose 
to guide and guard the mental welfare of our boys are 
the proper persons to make provision for such work as 
will restrain hundreds of youngsters who are bubbling 
over with the spirit of freedom and patriotism. 

Mayor Griffin, the City Commissioners, the members 
of the Board of Education, and large numbers of promi- 
nent citizens were deeply impressed with the patriotic 
talk of Mr. Kuenzli ; and it remained for the energetic 
Mayor to recommend the introduction of physical and 
military training in the public schools — thus Hoboken 
was not numbered among the cities that have spent much 
time in discussing preparedness and letting it go at that. 
But, on the contrary, Hoboken took the lead and, for 
this, much credit is due to the Mayor, the City Commis- 
sioners, and the members of the Board of Education. 

This action of the city authorities was backed by a 
healthy public sentiment, and a resolution appropriating 
$5,000 to equip and instruct a cadet corps, and to insti- 
tute in the public schools of the city compulsory physical 
training for all boys and girls from the second year 
through the high school grades, was introduced and 
passed by the Board of Commissioners. 

The Board of Education took up the project at once 
and a decision was reached to establish physical training 
courses to begin with the opening of school in the Fall 
term, but to organize a cadet corps of five hundred boys 
immediately. 

143 



An illustration of the spirit that animated the mem- 
bers of the Board of Education we find in the address 
in which President James P. Laverty outlined the pro- 
gram. Mr. Laverty said:' 

"Fidelity to public duty requires mental education 
and physical development of the youth. We seek to 
progress the mind, but we neglect the advancement of 
the physique of the child at school. 

"Compulsory physical training should be included in 
the course of study in the schools of Hoboken. Bodily 
discipline in early life is an important factor in the de- 
velopment of the sturdy man or woman who is to fight 
life's battles. 

"It is suggested that in each primary grammar school 
one-half hour (two fifteen-minute periods) in each 
school-day be allotted for physical exercises by the pupils ; 
progressive calisthenic instruction will develop muscles 
which otherwise would remain latent, would make for 
strong, agile boys and girls, respect for the laws of 
health, stir the blood in the veins, bring a glow to the 
cheeks and awaken energy. Bright minded pupils would 
abound in this school district. 

"Organize classes of instruction along military lines 
for both boys and girls for the purpose of promoting a 
proper personal bearing, a bodily uplift, and an ease of 
movement and self-confidence. 

"Drill both the boys and girls, instruct them in disci- 
pline and control ; give them a keen regard for authority, 
responsive to obedience ; inculcate a respect for each 
other ; a loyalty to their City, State, and Country. 

"Give to the girls a special course in 'first-aid work,' 
inspire them to work quickly and efficiently when a 
public occasion demands intense action. 

144 



"Give to the boys complete instruction in manual of 
arms, frequent drilling and marching, full routine of 
army life and practice. Arouse an abiding faith and 
loyalty in America and its institutions, making for the 
highest degree of citizenship, not necessarily confirmed 
in the dogma of militarism. 

"Physical and military training will result in grace- 
fully strong and mentally healthy, alert boys and girls, 
who will walk with shoulders erect and correct poise and 
carriage which will command attention and approval." 

As provided in the resolution adopted by the Mayor 
and Commissioners, a Cadet Corps known as "The United 
States Public School Cadets, First Regiment, Hoboken, 
New Jersey," was organized at a meeting of the Board 
of Education held on March 27th, 1916. 

Five hundred boys representing all the grammar and 
high school grades were enlisted after having presented 
notes from the parents who expressed hearty approval 
of the plan and gave assurances of their desire to co- 
operate with the school authorities in the first steps to- 
ward military training in the public schools. 

Officers of the National Guard were secured to in- 
struct the several groups of cadets, the boys of two 
different schools meeting at one centre, under one in- 
structor. Regular drills were held three times each 
week for 45-minute periods after the close of school. 
At the end of one month's drilling in this way, the 
cadets reported at the Armory in the City Hall where 
the Head Drill-Master met the several groups and there 
was given the first inspection drill. It is needless to say 
that there was much enthusiasm shown and no little 
rivalry for honors for the separate groups. The citizens 
were given an opportunity at this time to witness an 

I4S 



inspiring and stirring scene. And at this inspection drill 
the Cadet Corps and Military Training were given the 
seal of approval by the people of Hoboken. 

The boys drilled in uniforms consisting of leggings, 
coat, trousers, cap, cap ornament, and gun furnished by 
the Board of Education at a cost of $3.15 for the suit 
and $3.00 for the gun. The total cost of instruction for 
a period covering from March 15, 19 16, to October i, 
1916, was $1,046.13. The Head Drill-Master receiving 
a salary of $1,200 per year; and the Assistant Drill- 
Master an annual salary of $500. During the organi- 
zation of the corps six assistants, members of the Na- 
tional Guard were employed at the rate of $1 per drill. 

The Cadets had a prominent place in the Municipal 
Parade held on May 30th, 19 16, and again gave cause 
to the citizens to realize that the introduction of Military 
Training was a step in advance in the educational scheme 
of our country. 

At the opening of schools in September 1916, weekly 
drills for the Cadets were inaugurated — so that once 
each week, the boys report at school in uniform and at 
dismissal of school assemble for instruction under the 
Drill-Master. We find a continued enthusiasm among 
the boys and, in consequence, have no difficulty in filling 
the ranks of cadets who graduated from school or those 
who move from the City. In fact, it has been necessary 
for us to arrange a waiting list of boys eligible for the 
Cadet Corps. This plan does not apply to the High 
School where every boy enrolled in the school assembles 
for military drill one day each week. 

That much about the First Regiment of Uniteci 
States Public School Cadets. 

146 



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Swiss Infantry on Skis. 




One of the interesting sections of the Rh.etian Railway in 
THE Canton of the Grisons. 



















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Infantry Company kkady for I-nsi'ia i ion. 



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Artillery Staff Directing Gun Fire. 



What the public at large thought of it as a contri- 
bution to our country's preparedness, the following edi- 
torials of the "Hudson Observer" may show : 

HOBOKEN LEADS THE WAY. 

"To-morrow's Memorial Day Parade in Hoboken will 
be of more than usual interest because of the fact that it 
will mark the initial public appearance of the First Regi- 
ment, Public School Cadets of America. While the spirit 
of preparedness has been agitated all over the country, 
Hoboken was the first municipality to do something else 
besides discuss the question and quickly adopted the 
plan of compulsory military training in the public schools 
by organizing a regiment of cadets among the boys of 
the public schools. 

"As has been told in these columns, a regiment of the 
boys has been formed, provided with uniforms and fully 
equipped, has undergone quite some training, under the 
direction of competent drillmasters, and will march to- 
morrow for the first time in a public parade. It has 
not only instilled a deeper feeling of patriotism in the 
boys themselves, but the feeling has extended to the 
parents and relatives of the youngsters who will line the 
sidewalks of the streets through which the parade will 
pass to-morrow to cheer and encourage them. Not only 
will Hoboken people turn out in force to view the pro- 
cession, but it is anticipated that thousands of people 
from neighboring municipalities will be present to wit- 
ness the showing made by the youngsters who are now 
being prepared to defend Old Glory should such an 
occasion arise in the future. 

"That the First Regiment of Public School Cadets 
will win favor to-morrow and share honors with the 

147 



gallant remnant of the heroes who fought for the flag 
during the Rebellion is assured. It will be a great day 
for Hoboken, and Hobokenites will have every reason 
to feel proud of the fact that the Mile Square City is 
the first to show by actual work that they are in favor 
of preparedness." 

MEMORIAL DAY IN HOBOKEN. 

"The residents of Hoboken have occasion to feel 
proud of the Memorial Day observance. The parade was 
the best ever held in the city, with the possible exception 
of the parade at the unveiling of the monument erected 
to the soldiers and sailors who gave up their lives in 
defense of the Union. The veterans of the Civil War 
in the line were few, only seventeen of the hundreds 
of gallant men who enlisted from Hoboken being physic- 
ally able to participate, but the same spirit that actuated 
the veterans to offer their services to their country in 
the early sixties moved the men and youths who marched 
so proudly on Tuesday under the national colors. They, 
too, will answer the call to battle for the preservation 
of the nation. The appearance of the First Regiment 
of United States Public School Cadets, and to Hoboken 
belongs the honor as the first city in which they have 
been organized, was an agreeable surprise. Although 
this regiment was only recently formed, the boys showed 
the deep interest they have taken in the preparedness 
policy, for they have made splendid progress in training. 
They marched and drilled like old soldiers and merited 
the hearty applause showered upon them by the enthusi- 
astic spectators along the line who must have been con- 
vinced that if the United States should be unfortunately 

148 



involved in war Hoboken will be ready to supply its 
quota or more of brave young men to fight for the 
old flag. 

"Mayor Griffin and the Commissioners were highly 
pleased at the splendid showing made on Decoration 
Day." 

— Hudson Observer, June i, 1916. 

In connection with military drills for boys, I want 
to add a few words about the adoption of compulsory 
physical training for all boys and girls eight years of 
age and above. And I must confess that this part of 
preparedness in schools promised more difficulties than 
did the cadet corps. 

To enact the Swiss System with the open-air exer- 
cises, gymnastics on apparatus and instruction by male 
teachers, was impossible for the simple reason that we 
had no playgrounds for a majority of the schools; that 
of our three hundred teachers hardly two dozen were 
males and few of these able to instruct in physical train- 
ing. But the thing had to be started. I therefore pro- 
posed to the exponents of the Swiss System and to the 
then appointed Director of Physical Training to outline 
a program of instruction, beginning with simple exer- 
cises for the schoolroom, and to be demonstrated by 
every class-teacher. 

I proposed that for one week before the opening of 
School after the summer holiday, the teachers receive 
instruction for one hour each day so that they in turn 
would be made efficient for the teaching of this work 
to their classes. I suggested that these simple physical 
exercises be given fifteen minutes each day; and that 
the physical instructor present each new lesson to the 

149 



teachers so that, in a short time, a complete course 
would have been given and the work systematically 
presented. This was followed out by the school authori- 
ties and, with very few exceptions, the teachers re- 
sponded wonderfully to the new work. Of course tables 
prepared according to the Manual of Physical Training 
by Kuenzli and Panzer are a great help to the teacher. 

The Director of Physical Training acts in a super- 
visory capacity, instructs classes of older boys, and de- 
monstrates instruction to the teaching staff. It is our 
plan to install stationary apparatus in all available 
school yards and then, by the Spring of 1917, we shall 
be able to begin the regular gymnastic classes as provided 
in the Swiss System. 

Contrary to my anticipations, I am pleased to state 
that in the introduction of physical training we did not 
meet with the difficulties which we felt justified under 
the circumstances to expect. Our physical director, a 
young man, is intensely interested in his work; he is 
popular with the teachers and is ambitious to make his 
work an unqualified success. The parents and pupils 
are interested because they are beginning to see the real 
benefits of work which has for its object the better 
physical development of our boys and girls. And the 
teachers are enthusiastic in the introduction of a real 
work for which there has been a long-felt want in the 
curriculum of our public schools. 

I am confident that the subject of physical training 
has passed through the experimental stage in this City 
and that today we have a better discipline in our schools ; 
and a more healthful spirit for service which comes 
with a healthy mind in a healthy body. 



150 



CHAPTER X. 

Troops with strongest nerves will triumph.— Necessity of hard- 
ening body. — Suggestions as to the establishment of a Federal 
system of compulsory physical training. 

Someone said that the troops which had the strong- 
est nerves would finally triumph over their adversaries 
in the European War. More than a little truth was 
contained in that assertion. The stupendousness of the 
struggle, the strain and rack to which both body and 
mind in such a conflict are subjected, require nerves to 
be of steel if they are not to snap. 

It should be evident to all who have interested them- 
selves in the subject that successful warfare is becoming 
as much, if not more, a matter of ability to withstand 
the mental pressure entailed by days upon days in the 
trenches, where one is deafened by horrific and unending 
noises, and the ability of the body to hold up under 
hardships, fatigue, exposure and ill-nourishment, as it 
is of the individual soldier being well-drilled and a com- 
petent marksman. That ability of soldiers' mind and 
body to withstand such devitalizing forces is likely to 
be the determining factor in the future warfare. 

None will question the statement that, with few ex- 
ceptions, the adult who possesses a sound constitution, 
hardened body and steady nerves is he who either lived 
an outdoor life or underwent some sort of physical train- 
ing as a boy. Seldom does the weakling in youth develop 
into the athlete in manhood. The nervous system of a 

151 



human being is so closely related to, and its usefulness 
so dependent upon the soundness of the body's parts and 
organs ; that the more harmoniously developed and hard- 
ened the body of a soldier is, the greater his chances of 
retaining his efficiency through the nerve-racking hours 
on the battlefield. 

Your soldier of the future, then, must be a man of 
iron. The foundation must be laid in early youth. It 
is futile to try to bend the full-grown tree. Strong 
nerves, athletic body, subjection to discipline and the zeal 
to cooperate with his fellows for the good of the re- 
public are all attributes implanted during the physical 
training exercises of the Swiss public schools. 

Start now to give American boys, from the age of 
eight until they leave school, a systematic course of 
physical training, uniform throughout the country; or- 
ganize cadet corps for the older boys wherein they can 
get the benefit of the exercise in the open, learn the 
rudiments of miHtary drill and become proficient with 
the rifle ; crown it all with a few weeks of universal 
military training in their 19th, 20th and 21st years, and 
America will be saved both from the perils to which 
her present non-preparedness exposes her, and the evils 
of militarism that would follow the establishment of a 
large standing army — ^the only alternative. 

The purpose of the present chapter is to explain by 
what methods the first step in this program — adoption 
of a uniform, compulsory system of physical training, 
throughout all the States — can be successfully under- 
taken. 

The States, themselves, must be looked to for enact- 
ment of legislation compelling physical instruction to be 
made a part of the pubHc school curriculum. New York 

152 



State has already blazed the trail in the Welsh-Slater 
acts rendering physical training for all pupils in schools, 
and military training for boys, between i6 and 19 years 
old, who are in school, compulsory. The New York 
law takes the Swiss system as a model, this course being 
adopted after a most exhaustive inquiry by the legis- 
lature committees charged with investigating every phase 
of the project. 

The danger is in the chance that various States, once 
convinced that some system of physical training is ad- 
visable, may jeopardize complete success by the adoption 
of widely-differing systems, preventing uniformity and 
creating a hodge-podge that will surely detract from the 
efficiency of the general result. In this particular, Swit- 
zerland with her more centralized government, has an 
advantage over the United States. The twenty-one 
Swiss Cantons have no choice but to train the boys in 
their public schools strictly according to the one manual 
of physical instruction authorized by the Federal Gov- 
ernment. 

The United States government, while it has not the 
power to compel the States to adopt a uniform system, 
or any system at all for that matter, for use in the public 
schools, can immeasurably assist bringing such a com- 
munication to pass. The adoption by the national gov- 
ernment of a model system of physical training and a 
plan for the organization of cadet corps, coupled with 
the provision that the government bear a proportion of 
the cost of equipment and instruction, in much the same 
manner as it furnishes arms and uniforms to the Nation- 
al Guards of the States, would work wonders in bringing 
State legislatures and school authorities to look at the 
thing in a reasonable light. 

153 



•TV^ 



!3,000 HEAR PLEAS 



Military Training for All Chil- 
dren Advocated at Huge 
Mass Meeting. 



MILITIA LEADERS SPEAK 



Former Lieutenant Shows Contrast 

of Mobilization in Switzerland 

and United States. 



More than S.O'OO persons, a gathering 
that filled the state armory drill shed 
almost to capacity, last night heard 
spea.kers laud the S-wiss military pre- 
paredness plan as the most practical 
and efficient for the United States, and 
urge its adoption in New York stale 
through the passage of the bill of As- 
semblyman Clarence F. "Welsh, which 
calls for training in the schools, pre- 
paratory to forming a lAllitary defense. 
Assemblyman Welsh. Major General 
John P. O'Ryan, commanding the New 
York state national guard; Brigadier 
General Louis W. Stotesbury, adjutant 
general, and Frederick W. Kuenzli, 
formerly a lieutenant in the Swiss 
army, declared training should be made 
obligatory uporf school children, and 



Report of the "Knickerbocker Press," Albany, N. Y., of March 30, 1916, on the 

mass-meeting in favor of the Welsh-Slater bills for Physical Training 

and Military Training in the schools of the State of New York. 



the 



she 
pres 



ini 



Above all else, military training of boys, both without 
arms in school and with arms in cadet corps, should be 
not only uniform throughout the nation, but should be 
taken from the "Infantry Drill Regulations of the U. S. 
Army," if the purpose of such training is to be to so edu- 
cate the boy that he will need only a short period of 
service as an adult to be rounded into shape as a first- 
rate soldier. Who does not remember the weary days 
following the Declaration of War in 1898 spent in drill- 
ing the thousands of utterly raw recruits who volun- 
teered to fight the Spaniards? It is doubtful if the most 
of them were in condition to go to the front, had they 
been needed, by the time peace was concluded. 

But had those same volunteers been men who, in 
their boyhood, had been taught to march, face, align, 
deploy and reconnoitre, and made familiar with the 
manual of arms, can anyone doubt transforming them 
into soldiers would have been comparatively simple? 

Physical instruction in American public schools, as 
in Switzerland, should be given by public school teachers, 
and, to attain the best results, the course teachers would 
undergo to qualify for such work should be specifically 
laid down by the national government. The receiving 
of governmental aid could be made contingent upon a 
State authorizing such teachers only as had qualified as 
such to become instructors of physical training. 

The salient points of a system of physical training 
for boys, with which each State in the Union could be 
asked to comply are : 

I. Establishment as part of the school curriculum 
for boys from the age of eight onward, of compulsory 
physical training, with qualified school-teachers as the 

155 



instructors, and under the supervision of the regular 
educational authorities. 

2. The division of physical training into three 
courses, scientifically determined according to the ages 
of the pupils, so as not to overtax their strength, but 
rather to progress gradually in the exercises. Games 
and free exercises should largely feature the instruction 
given to the boys in the first course, the formal and 
more arduous exercises being for the older boys. The 
first course should end when the boy reaches the age 
of ten and the second when he is thirteen, while he 
would continue the third course until he finished school. 

3. Encouragement of all pupils to work together, 
by training them in classes, so that the weaker are spurred 
on the greater achievement and the stronger held back 
from overexertion. It is always the ability of the aver- 
age of the mass that determines the efficiency of an army, 
"The strength of the wolf is the pack, but the strength 
of the pack is the wolf," as Kipling puts it. Working 
in cooperation always stimulates obedience and promotes 
discipline. 

4. Even in athletic exercises the competition should 
be largely between classes or teams of boys, rather than 
between individuals. 

5. "Hikes" and marching exercises are sorely needed, 
as the failure of many National Guard units to come up 
to the standard in this particular, proves. But such 
marching should be in close order, and not consist of 
straggling groups. Thus would the poor walker be en- 
couraged to greater effort. Endurance, alertness, and 
cultivation of a love for nature, as well as ability in 
marching and discipline are results of properly con- 

156 



ducted "hikes." Singing in chorus can be made a pleas- 
ure feature of marching. 

6. Physical training courses should cover the entire 
school year, and there should be at least two hours' 
training for each class a week. 

7. States should provide for a drill and playground 
near every public schoolhouse. 

8. Requisite stationary apparatus for instruction in 
physical training should be installed in every public 
school yard. 

9. The War Department should provide for in- 
spectors who would see to it that States receiving Gov- 
ernment support are conformed to the prescribed pro- 
gram of physical training. 

10. The State authorities should be required to re- 
port, at least every two years, to the War Department, 
on the conduct and progress of the training and the con- 
dition of grounds and apparatus. 

11. Instructions for teachers of physical training 
should be given in State Normal Schools and teachers' 
colleges. In such schools physical training should be an 
obligatory subject for at least three hours per week, and 
also obligatory for a State teacher's certificate. 

12. The War Department should provide special 
summer courses annually for physical training teachers. 



157 



CHAPTER XI. 

After the war — what? — The world will both hate and envy Amer- 
ica. — Lesson of the Deutschland and U-53. — Building battle- 
ships with no men for the crews. — Failure of army recruiting. — 
National Guard not up to expectation. — Our only hope is 
universal training. — State's sovereign right to preserve itself. — 
Permanent world peace an idle dream. — Shall our foes find 
us weak? 

What does America intend to do against the time 
when, the European war ended, she will find herself 
equally the object of Europe's envy and Europe's 
hatred? And if fancied security is conceived in the 
exhaustion of Europe after the war, what say you of 
the more bitter hatred and deeper envy of Asia, not 
weakened, not exhausted, but everlastingly prepared to 
strike ? 

The common saying that "the world is a small place, 
after all" was strikingly emphasized when the feats of 
the German submarines Deutschland and U-53 demon- 
strated that America's hopes of immunity from attack 
because of her isolation were unfounded. If the U-53, 
could sink enemy merchant vessels barely outside the 
three-mile territorial limit of the United States, what 
would hinder some other U-boat or fleet of U-boats 
crossing the Atlantic and torpedoing American warships ? 
And if the Atlantic can be traversed by submarines, so 
can the Pacific. 

The answer is that we must build a navy so powerful 
with provision for defense against submarine attack, 
that the danger will be eliminated. Congress has pro- 

158 



vided for a great navy, you say. Has it done so, all 
things considered? Ships, yes; but how about the men 
to man the ships? When the superdreadnaught Arizona 
went into commission October i6, 19 16, it was necessary 
to almost deplete the crews of the comparatively new 
superdreadnaughts Kansas, Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire to man the Arizona. The other three vessels neces- 
sarily went into the reserve, as useless to the nation in 
time of sudden need as though they were birch bark 
canoes. 

Turn to the army! The last Congress provided for 
increasing the force of regulars by about 35,000 men. 
Recruiting stations were opened, premiums of $5.00 were 
offered for persuading men to enlist, every conceivable 
inducement was offered to able-bodied men to join the 
army. What came of it? The army is no larger than 
it was before. Out of one hundred million people there 
could not be found 35,000 men who would come for- 
ward to comply with their country's request for what 
would be at best a very insufficient first line of defense. 

With no men to man our ships, with it already 
proven impossible to raise the army strength through 
voluntary enlistment, and with the National Guard hold- 
ing out no longer any attraction to the youth of the 
country, who will be at the triggers to repel an invading 
foe when our hour strikes? 

There will be no one unless we resolve now to adopt 
a system of military training — universal and compulsory 
that will give us in time a reserve of millions of men, 
pursuing each his ordinary vocation in life, not merely 
willing, but able to fall into line, shoulder a gun and 
become at a minute's notice a unit in the most splendid 
army of defense the world has ever known. 

159 



Of what avail that the great majority of American 
men would respond to a call for volunteers in time of 
need? Of what use would they be if they were un- 
trained? One might as well'try to take out an insurance 
policy after one's house had caught afire, as to begin 
training to be soldiers after a foreign foe had declared 
war and had launched an attacking force against us. 

There are probably but few citizens, able to go to 
war, who would not volunteer in time of pressing national 
peril. Any who hesitated to do so would not deserve 
the name of citizens. But the fact is, we are facing real 
peril right now. The trouble is that not enough of us 
realize it to impel us to prepare to meet it. Self-preser- 
vation, therefore, demands that the Republic, exercising 
its sovereign right and will and wisdom, step in and com- 
pel us to so fit ourselves that we will be able to defend 
our cherished homes and loved ones. 

Those of us who cannot see a dangerous lack of 
preparedness in our Volunteer System should consent to 
Universal Training and Service for the wonderful im- 
provement it would have on health, vigor and vitality 
of our entire Nation. 

What "The World" says editorially of the National 
Guard Service at the border, is an observation made 
generally of boys who train for the sake of their country : 

"SOLDIERING FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT. 

"Nothing was more observed in the guardsmen of 
the returning Seventh, as in those of the Seventy-First, 
the Fourteenth and other commands in other places, than 
their abounding physical health, their vigor and self- 
confidence. 

i6o 



"The men on the border have endured the mid- 
summer heat of a trying cHmate with much of the labor 
and some of the hardships of actual warfare. Their 
gain in health and strength in such conditions testifies 
to the value of discipline and of ordered, balanced ex- 
ercise out of doors under expert instruction. 

"If the World should ever become a convert to con- 
scription, it would not be from fear of the Japanese 
toasting in sake the fall of San Francisco or of German 
guns trimming down the Woolworth Building. 

"It would be because training might instill into the 
unlicked American cub the instinct of solidarity, the habit 
of discipline and the physical well-being of systematic 
exercise. 

"Universal military service appeals to its most ra- 
tional supporters not because it is military but because 
it is universal and because it is service." 

Enough credit can hardly be given to President 
Woodrow Wilson for keeping the National Guard in 
training at the border. The six months of service netted 
Uncle Sam 150,000 additional men fit to take the field 
in any emergency. But the mobilization and border 
service of the Guard opened also the eyes of our citizens 
as to the absolute necessity to abolish our present Na- 
tional Military system. 

The dual harness of State and Federal organization, 
oath and allegiance seems to be rather a setback than 
an improvement of the efficiency of the National Guard 
if the refusal of 40,000 guardsmen to take the Federal 
oath, and the great number of them, refusing to reinlist 
is any sign of the true state of affairs. 

It is idle to talk of permanent world peace, of dis- 
armament, of universal arbitration after the great 

161 



struggle in Europe is over. As long as men hold oppos- 
ing ambitions, as long as nations have conflicting interests, 
there will be war. Just as man, the individual, if un- 
restrained by fear of civil' authority, will use force to 
gain his ends, so nations, made up of men, ruled by men, 
will go to war with one another in the absence of any 
higher authority to restrain them. 

So, dismissing, as we must if we are to reason in- 
telligently, the idea of the millenium settling down upon 
the earth after the European war, it is no difficult task 
to picture the position in which America will find herself 
at that time. 

The Central Powers will hate us, as they hate us now, 
because we have supplied their enemies with the muni- 
tions of war and the money without which the Entente 
AlHes could hardly have continued the conflict. 

The Entente Allies will hate us, even as they do now, 
because they believe we did not go far enough in resent- 
ing German submarine warfare. Japan will hate us, as 
she does now and has for years past, because her people 
have been denied equality in the Western States. 

The Wealth we are accumulating and will have 
amassed by the time the war is over will make us the 
object of the envy of all nations. 

Shall we be hated and envied — and weak? 



162 



^m^jf ^-^— ^ 




Address by Frederick A. Kuenzli to 500 boys of the 
"First Regiment of United States School Cadets," 
at their first appearance in uniform at the Audi- 
torium of Public School No. i, Hoboken, N. J., 
May 12, 1916. 

If I should be asked what appeals best to me in 
your pledge of allegiance I would answer: *'One nation 
indivisible." 

In going over your names I notice that they bear 
the marks of the several national stocks from which 
your fathers came. But you are not Irishmen or Ger- 
mans or Frenchmen or Hebrews. You are Americans, 
every one of you, and with no difference in your Ameri- 
canism because of the stock from which you came. You 
think, you wish and do the things that are American 
and the flag under which you serve as cadets is a flag 
in which the blood of most of the races of mankind is 
united to make a free nation. 

You want a united nation because you know that 
only when we stand "one for all and all for one" can 
we successfully resist when danger threatens our honor, 
integrity or independence. Your uniform is the emblem 
of unity. Your work, your training while in this garb 
has only one purpose — that of being better able to defend 
the Stars and Stripes should that necessity arise. 

You are brave boys and your parents are patriotic 
parents. Voluntarily you offered yourself to prepare 
your bodies to better endure hardship which always 
comes to men in defense of the flag; you are willing 

163 



to learn how to handle arms and how to shoot, which 
is essential should we have to go to war. 

The rich boy does not want to show off by wearing 
a suit of costly material, rich Jack will not outdo poor 
Jim with a classy tie when they come together in the 
interest of our country. All social and political dis- 
tinction disappears when we serve only the one purpose : 
Our Nation. These are the reasons of wearing that 
simple uniform, representing all for which our glorious 
Republic stands. 

Therefore, boys, respect your uniform, you wouldn't 
want to insult your flag, your country, and I am sure 
you will not besmirch your uniform by unbecoming con- 
duct. Wherever you go, whatever you do in this mili- 
tary suit, think that you are in your best cloth. 

We know that some of our citizens do not like 
the idea of your training nor your wearing a soldier's 
uniform. I cannot understand these people, I cannot 
see any sane objection to this kind of preparedness. We 
hate war, so did all those Americans who made this 
country great, but they could not prevent the Revolution 
which gave us independence, nor the War of 1812, the 
Mexican War nor the Spanish War. Eternal World's 
Peace has been a dream up to now and will stay a dream 
for generations to come. 

But isn't there anything that could keep the United 
States out of war embroilments with any of the great 
Powers? Answer: Yes, preparedness. There is one 
great example that proves this assertion and that is 
Switzerland, the country which trains the boys from 
their tender age for defense, the country in which the 
boy of thirteen is a good shot because he gets the train- 
ing. From his i8th to his 20th year the Swiss boy pre- 

164 



pares for the sake of his country, and the Preparedness 
of the Swiss youth is the real reason that Switzerland 
is at peace today and none of the four great surrounding 
powers cares to attack her. 

And look to our country. By whose merit is it 
that this wonderful flag with the Stars and Stripes waves 
today over the heads of 100,000,000 free people? Is it 
the merit of the pacifists who rave against any and every 
preparedness, who faint when they see a rifle, or is it 
the proud achievement of those boys who threw them- 
selves into the garb of Uncle Sam whenever danger 
arose ? 

It was the soldier Washington that made our in- 
dependence possible and lasting, it was the minute-men 
of New England, Dan Morgan's Virginia riflemen bear- 
ing on their uniform coats Patrick Henry's famous 
words — ''Liberty or Death," it was Washington's army 
of Valley Forge drilled by Baron Steuben, it was the 
brilliant crackshots of Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen 
at the battle of New Orleans that kept the Stars and 
Stripes floating. When President Polk sent his famous 
message to Congress in May, 1846, declaring: 

"Mexico has invaded our territory and shed Ameri- 
can blood on American soil," which prompted Congress 
70 years ago tomorrow to declare war, it was that 
sterling soldier Taylor with his brave army who added 
victory to victory and won the Mexican War. It was 
General Scott and his boys in uniform who so brilliantly 
fought their way to Mexico City and planted the Stars 
and Stripes over that city. It was the great soldier 
boy of 1898 who gave Cuba its liberty and it will be 
the future citizen-soldier only, who will protect the 
future of America. 

165 



And what greater thing could you serve than a 
nation as this we love and are proud of? 

By military training we develop an efficient, practi- 
cal patriotism, a patriotism that knows that when the 
honor, the dignity, the integrity of our country is at 
stake, it can and will be defended by a trained, capable 
army of patriots, an army wherein one feels that he 
has the ability to do things, the power which comes 
from knowledge and training, and a willingness to offer, 
to contribute all for our flag. 

It is therefore with great satisfaction that I con- 
gratulate the citizens of Hoboken for having such practi- 
cal patriots as members of the City Commission, the 
members of the Board of Education and especially Mayor 
Patrick Griffin, who made this Cadet Corps possible. 
The State of New Jersey, which gave our nation that 
great American, our President Woodrow Wilson, is also 
to be congratulated in having the patriotic city of Ho- 
boken contribute to the Nation the "First Regiment of 
United States School Cadets." That the City of Hoboken 
may always prosper and always be a patriotic daughter 
of America is my sincere wish. 



i66 



Frederick A. Kuenzli. 



MILITARY CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

SWISS FEDERATION 

(Of April 12, 1907.) 



The Federal Assembly after entertaining a message 
of the Federal Council decrees the following: 

FIRST PART. 

MILITARY OBLIGATIONS. 

I. Extent of Obligation. 

Article i. 
Every Swiss is bound to do military service. 
Such service shall consist of: 
Rendering personal military service; or, 
Paying a tax of exemption. 

Article 2. 

Military service shall commence with the year in 
which the 20th year is reached and end with the com- 
pletion of the 48th year. 

Young men who pass the examination of acceptance 
may be permitted to enter the service before reaching 
the legal age, but are not exempt from the prescribed 
training with their year's class. 

The provisions as to the time of service of officers 
and the provisions regulating the draft of boys in case 

167 



of war are the exceptions to the aforesaid time limit of 
obHgatory service. 

Article 3. 
Anyone not serving pers^onally must pay the tax of 
exemption. The duty to pay the tax ceases v^hen the 
payee reaches the age of 40. 

II. Recruiting. 

Article 4. 

The Federal Government in conjunction with the 
Cantons shall undertake the recruiting. 

Directions for the appointment of the recruiting 
commission and its procedure shall be laid down by the 
Federal Council. 

Recruiting is to take place after a man reaches his 
19th year. 

Article 5. 

Recruiting men are to be classified according to their 
fitness : 

1. For firing line; 

2. For auxiliary service; 

3. Unfit for duty, on account of defectiveness. 
Re-examination within four years shall be permissible 

before a final rejection. 

After passing the examination the recruit shall be 
assigned to a particular branch of service. 

Article 6. 

For the recruiting examination the man shall report 
at his place of residence. 

While under order of recruiting he shall be subject 
to military jurisdiction and the military penal law. 

168 



Article 7. 

Each man shall receive a service book wherein all 
data relating to service and its fulfillment are to be 
entered. 

The service book shall never be used for civil 
reference. 

III. Personal Military Service. 

Article 8. 

The obligations of men fit for the firing line shall 
be as follows : 

1. Service of instruction; 

2. Service with the colors, active service in defense 
of the independence against a foreign enemy, as 
well as maintaining peace and order within the 
country. 

Article 9. 

Personal military service shall include compHance 
with: the roster; maintenance and inspection of uni- 
forms; personal armament and equipment; obligatory 
firing drill; and, in general, conformance to the military 
obligations of the service. 

Article 10. 
Every soldier may be compelled : 

1. To accept a commission; 

2. To perform the amount of service required 
thereby ; 

3. To take a command. 

Anyone receiving a commission must perform the 
obligations thereof. 

169 



Article ii. 

The soldier in service shall receive from the State 
pay, subsistence and mileag,e for traveling. 

Amount of pay shall be fixed by Federal law. 

Regulations for lodging, feeding and mileage shall 
be adopted by the Federal Assembly. 

Article 12. 

During sessions of the Federal Assembly the mem- 
bers thereof are exempt from service of instruction. 

Article 13. 

During their office or employment, the following per- 
sons shall be exempt from personal military service : 

1. The members of the Federal Council and its chief 
clerks ; 

2. Ecclesiastics not commissioned as chaplains; 

3. Medical directors, permanent directors and nurses 
of pubHc hospitals; 

4. Directors and guardians of jails and penitentia- 
ries, members of the police force (if not required 
to do duty under Article 62) ; 

5. The personnel of the border guards. 

(In case of mobilization the Federal Council 
may put this guard at the disposal of the mili- 
tary authorities.) 

6. The officials who, in time of war, are indispensa- 
ble and employees of the public service and mili- 
tary administration. 

An ordinance of the Federal Council shall designate 
those branches of public service and the officials and 
employees who, in time of war, are indispensable. 

170 



Article 14. 
The members of police corps and border guards as 
well as the officials and employees mentioned in Article 
13, Section 6, are exempt from service only after passing 
a recruiting school. 

Article 15. 
The Federal Government shall pay three- fourths of 
the cost of substitutes for teachers who are doing in- 
struction service either as non-commissioned or com- 
missioned officers. No Federal aid shall be given for 
substitutes of such teachers who do service in regular 
repetition courses. 

Article 16. 

Should anyone render himself unworthy of his com- 
mission or membership in the army by unbecoming con- 
duct in private life, the military courts shall decide 
whether his actions justify expulsion from the army. 

Article 17. 
Anyone convicted of a serious offense shall be ex- 
cluded from the army. 

Such exclusion shall be decreed by the military de- 
partment. 

Article 18. 

Officers under tutelage, in bankruptcy or against 
whom there exists a judgment for default of property 
shall be excluded from service. 

Should the condition causing the exclusion be raised, 
the board that commissioned such excluded persons shall 
decide upon his application for reinstatement to the 
army. 

171 



Non-commissioned officers under tutelage, in bank- 
ruptcy or against whom there exists a judgment for 
default of property shall be excluded from service pend- 
ing any such condition. 

Article 19. 

Incompetent officers and non-commissioned officers 
shall be removed from their command by the authority 
which commissioned them, and compelled to pay the 
tax of exemption. 

Should a commander of an Army Division or Army 
Corps ask the removal for incapability of an officer or 
non-commissioned officer in his command, and such a 
request be ratified by the Federal Military Department, 
the board which promoted him to his rank shall comply 
therewith. 

To remove officers above the rank of captain, order 
must come from the Commission for National Defense. 

IV. Auxiliary Service. 

Article 20. 

Those recruits found capable only to do auxiliary 
service shall be assigned to one of the auxiliary branches. 

Here they shall enter either the service of the Med- 
ical Corps, Commissary Department, Information De- 
partment or Transport Department. 

Members assigned to the auxiliary service need not 
undergo instruction service, but shall pay the tax of 
exemption for those years they do not perform active 
service. 

The Federal Council shall issue orders for govern- 
ance of the auxiliary service. 

172 



V. special Contribution by the Federation. 

Article 21. 

The Federation shall insure the soldiers against fi- 
nancial loss due to sickness and accidents. 

The execution of this article shall be provided for 
in the Law of Military Insurance. 

Article 22. 

Adequate provision shall be made for the support of 
families which may come to need in consequence of 
members of families doing service. 

Such aid shall never be treated as charity. 

Article 23. 

It shall come from the municipality in which the 
members of the soldier reside. If they live in a foreign 
country, from their native municipality. 

The municipality shall fix the amount of aid and 
take all other measures which are necessary under the 
conditions. 

It shall report to the Cantonal authority which in 
turn shall forward the report to the Federal Military 
Department. 

Article 24. 

Three-fourths of such municipal expenses are de- 
frayed by the Federation, one-fourth by the respective 
Canton. 

Article 25. 

Should disputes arise, the decision of approval of 
the arrangements of the municipality rests with the 
Federal Council. 

173 



Article 26. 

No demand for return of such funds of aid shall 
ever be made. 

Article 27. 

For loss of life or bodily injury of a civilian caused 
by military exercises, the Federation shall be liable un- 
less it is shown that the accident was due to an act of 
God, or the fault of the killed or injured. 

Should the accident result in death of the injured 
person, the Federation shall be liable to those who were 
dependent upon the victim. 

Article 28. 

In a similar way the Federation shall be liable for 
all damage to property caused by military exercises. 

The Federal Assembly shall arrange the procedure 
of fixing such liability. 

Article 29. 

The Federation shall have recourse against persons 
causing the accident or damage to property. 

VI. Duty of Municipalities and Inhabitants. 

Article 30. 
Municipalities and inhabitants shall be bound to: 

1. Furnish lodging and food for troops and horses, 
and grounds for vehicles ; 

2. Furnish required military transports. 

For such service the Federation shall pay an ade- 
quate compensation. 

174 



Article 31. 
The Municipalities shall furnish gratuitously: 

1. Suitable rooms for recruiting, sanitary examina- 
tions and inspection of personal arms and equip- 
ments. 

2. Rooms for headquarters and guards, as well as 
for sick persons and those under arrest. 

3. Grounds and places for mobihzation. 

4. Rifle ranges for the required rifle tests. (Arti- 
cle 124.) 

Article 32. 

To help municipalities in establishing rifle ranges 
and grounds for military exercises, the Federal Council 
may grant the application of the Federal law of con- 
demnation. 

Article 33. 

Property owners must allow the use of their ground 
for military exercises. 

Damage so incurred may be recovered from the 
Federation by a procedure laid down by the Federal 
Assembly. 

Article 34. 

Every ten years, or when ordered, a census of horses 
and mules, fit for the various military purposes, shall 
be taken so as to ascertain the number of such animals 
in municipalities and Cantons. 

The owners shall be bound to bring free of charge 
their animals to the designated census places. 

Neglect of this order shall place the liability for all 
costs accruing on the owner. 

Every municipality must keep a record of available 
horses, mules and vehicles. 

175 



SECOND PART. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY. 

I. Classes of the Army. 

Article 35. 

The Army shall consist of Auszug, Landwehr and 
Landsturm. 

A soldier belongs to the: 

Auszug, or First Line, from his 20th to his 32nd 

year ; 
Landwehr, from his 33rd to his 40th year; 
Landsturm, from 41st to 48th year. 

Assigned to the Landsturm also shall be : 

Soldiers of the Auszug and Landwehr, unfit for 
service in those classes, but able to serve in the 
Landsturm; and volunteers who have proven 
their ability in rifle firing and their physical 
fitness. 

The time of service for non-commissioned officers 
and soldiers of Cavalry is 10 years. 

Article 36. 

Captains must remain in the First Line until after 
completion of their thirty-eighth year; in the Landwehr 
until they have completed their forty-fourth year. 

Officers above the grade of major must serve in the 
First Line and Landwehr until after completion of the 
forty-eighth year. 

176 



All officers of the Landsturm must serve until they 
have completed their fifty-second year. 

Officers who so consent may be employed after pass- 
ing this age limit. 

Officers of the age for the Auszug may be employed 
with the Landwehr or Landsturm, those of the age for 
the Landwehr with the Landsturm. 

Article 37. 

The 31st of December of each year shall be the day 
of entering from one class to another ; in time of im- 
pending war the Federal Council may postpone the date 
of entering into the succeeding class. 

In case of war the Landwehr may be used to fill 
the ranks of the Auszug, the Landsturm those of the 
Landwehr. 

II. Parts of the Army. 

Article 38. 
The army shall consist of : 

1. The officers. 

2. The General Stafif. 

3. The branches of troops: 

a. Infantry (fusileers, sharpshooters, cyclists, ma- 
chine gunners). 

b. Cavalry (dragoons, guides, mounted machine and 
gun crews). 

c. Artillery (field artillery, mountain artillery, and 
foot artillery). 

d. Engineer troops (engineer officers, sappers, pon- 
pontoniers, pioneers, railroaders). 

e. Fortress troops (fortress artillery, machine gun- 
ners, fortress pioneers, fortress sappers). 

177 



f. Medical corps (physicians, pharmacists, and sol- 
diers of the medical corps). 

g. Veterinary troops (veterinarians, farriers), 
h. Commissary troops. 

i. Train troops (army train, line train, teamsters). 

4. Branches of service: 

MiHtary law officers, chaplains, field post and field 
telegraph, general transportation and railroad 
service, territorial service, secretaries and order- 
lies for headquarters, motor service, military 
police. 

5. Auxihary service (Article 20). 

The Federal Assembly may change, or make additions 
to these regulations. 

Article 39. 
The Army shall be divided into : 

1. Elementary units: Company, squadron, battery, 
ambulance, detachment of railroad troops. 

2. Tactical units: Battalion, groups of artillery, 
regiment, brigade, lazaret, commissary detach- 
ment, mobile train, depot train. 

3. Army units : Division, Army Corps, garrison of 
fortifications. 

III. Staffs, General Staff. 
Article 40. 
The staff of the Army shall be at the service of the 
Commander-in-Chief. An ordinance of the Federal 
Council shall regulate its organization. 

In peace times the General Staff shall perform the 
functions of the staff of the Army. 

178 



Article 41. 

Staff officers shall be assigned to the commanders of 
the army and tactical units. 

Assignment of officers and secretaries to the staffs 
shall be made by the Federal Military Department after 
conference with the respective commanders. 

Staffs of fusileer battalions are excepted. 

As a rule, officers detailed to staff duty shall return 
after four years' service to their field units. 

Article 42. 

The General Staff shall consist of officers of the 
general staff corps and military railroad officers. 

The chief of the General Staff Department shall be 
head of the General Staff. 

Article 43. 

Captains and first lieutenants, who have fulfilled the 
requirements for promotion to captaincy may be ad- 
mitted to the General Staff Corps. 

Successful passing of General Staff School I shall be 
also required. 

Captains who have successfully passed the Central 
School II, and who are eligible for service in the Gener- 
al Staff need not take the first part of General Staff 
School I. 

Article 44. 

After a first period of four years' service with the 
General Staff, officers shall, as a rule, be transferred 
back to their field unit. During each rank they should 
be afforded the command of a field unit. 

The military railroad officers shall be chosen from 
officials of the railroad and steamboat service. 

179 



IV. Classification of the Army. 

Article 45. 

The following units are to be formed : 
Infantry: 3 to 6 companies shall form a battalion; 2 to 

4 battalions a regiment; 2 to 3 regiments a brigade. 
Cavalry : 2 to 3 squadrons of dragoons shall form a 

regiment ; 2 to 3 regiments and a mounted company 

of machine guns, a brigade. 
Artillery: 2 to 4 batteries of field, mountain, or foot 

artillery shall form a ''group" ; 2 to 3 "groups," a 

regiment; 4 to 6 park companies and the necessary 

trains, a mobile park ; 2 to 4 park companies a depot 

park. 
Engineers : 2 to 4 companies, with necessary train shall 

form a battalion. 
Fortress troops : 2 to 6 companies of the fortress troops 

shall form a ''group" of fortress artillery. 
Medical Corps : 3 to 6 ambulance and necessary train 

shall form a "lazaret." 
Commissary troops : Several subsistence companies with 

train shall form a subsistence detachment. 

Article 46. 

Divisions shall form by assembling elementary and 
tactical units of different branches of arms. An Army 
Corps is to be composed of several Divisions with addi- 
tional units. 

Article 47. 

The commander of a fortified place shall be the com- 
mander-in-chief of the garrison and in time of war he 

180 



shall have at his disposal all the war material in the 
place. Parts of the garrison are to be: 

The staffs, with the chief of artillery and engineers ; 
the commanders of sectors and forts ; the guard troops 
of forts ; the fortress troops, and the branches of troops. 

To guard against surprise the soldiers of the vicinity 
may form guard troops. 

Article 48. 
In organizing, instructing and equipping troops, re- 
cruited from montainous regions, their availability in 
the event of war and the proximity of their place of 
abode to the scene of action should be considered. 

Article 49. 

To staffs and units are to be added the necessary 
officers and non-commissioned officers of other branches 
of arms and branches of service. 

These officers or non-commissioned officers shall re- 
tain their original assignment but shall be subject at 
any time to report for duty with their respective staffs 
The staff commander shall be the superior of such at- 
tached officers or non-commissioned officers. 

Article 50. 

The service of subsistence and accountability are to 
be performed by quartermasters in the tactical units, by 
commissary officers in the army units. 

The quartermasters are to be taken from field officers 
but they shall retain their original assignment of branch 
of arms. 

Article 51. 

Officers not assigned to particular troops shall be at 
the disposition of the Federal Council. 

181 



Article 52. 
The Federal Assembly shall decree: 

1. The number and composition of the elementary 
units in the different branches of arms and the 
composition of their corps material; 

2. The number and composition of tactical units and 
army units as well as the composition of their 
staffs and corps material; 

3. The number of companies, fusileer battalions and 
squadrons of dragoons to be furnished by each 
Canton. 

Article 53. 

According to these resolutions the Federal Council 
shall establish the order of battle. 

V. Branches of Service. 

Article 54. 

Military laws shall be administered by Division 
Courts, Supplementary Courts, Military Courts of Ap- 
peals and the Special Courts. 

The Judge Advocate shall be the chief administrator 
of law. 

Military judges must have a judicial education and 
the credit of service as troop officer. 

The military penal law is to be decreed by a special 
Federal law. 

Article 55. 

Chaplains shall be attached to the various tactical 
units, according to the predominating faith in such unit. 
Chaplains shall have the rank of captains. 
182 



Article 56. 

Postal service for troops of considerable number is 
to be handled by the field post. 

The field telegraphy shall take over the telegraphic 
service of the Army. 

The officials of the field post and field telegraph at- 
tached to the staff hold, during service, the rank of 
officers and non-commissioned officers. 

Article 57. 

The transportation and railroad service shall take 
over the communication between the territorial authori- 
ties and the Army. 

Transport to and from the Army as well as the pro- 
tection of the lines of communication is to be left to 
its care. 

Article 58. 

The territorial department shall be intrusted with 
the country's interest where the Army cannot take care 
of it. 

Delivery to and carrying from the Army shall be its 
duty. 

The territorial service can also be charged with local 
defense problems out of reach of the field army. 

Article 59. 
Secretaries of staffs shall do the office work of staffs. 
They shall have either the rank of "Adjudantunter- 
offizier" or lieutenant. 

Article 60. 
To care for horses, arms and personal equipment 
of mounted officers, orderlies are to be assigned to staffs 
and units. 

183 



Units of field and mountain artillery as well as train 
troops shall have no such orderlies. 

Officers' orderlies shall do their recruiting school 
service with the train troops and their other service with 
the staff to which they are assigned. 

The Federal Council may prescribe additional regu- 
lations for the officers' orderlies. 

Article 6i. 

Automobile service and service of similar nature is 
to be performed by soldiers or volunteers. 

The latter shall be under military law pending such 
employment. 

Article 62. 

For police duty with the field troops an army police, 
made up of members of police corps, is to be organized 
by the Federal Assembly. 

VI. Superiors. 

Article 63. 
The following are to be ranks in the Army : 

a. ''High privates" (Gefreite). 

b. Non-commissioned officers: 

Corporal, sergeant, quartermaster-sergeant, sergeant- 
major, "non-commissioned officer adjutant" (Ad- 
jutant Unteroffizier). 

c. Subalterns : 

Second and First Lieutenant. 

d. Captains. 

184 



e. Higher Officers: 

Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, Colonel of Di- 
vision, Colonel of Army Corps, General. 

The incumbent of a rank shall retain his grade even 
after leaving his command. 

Article 64. 

Within the same rank the date of promotion shall 
determine the precedence; with the same rank and same 
date of promotion the seniority shall determine the pre- 
cedence. 

In case of a temporary vacancy of a command, no 
one being especially designated to take over the duties, 
the immediate subordinate shall fill the place. First 
chance for temporary appointment shall be given to the 
one who has passed the requirements for the higher 
rank. 

Article 65. 

The number of non-commissioned and commissioned 
officers must always be kept at full strength. 

Non-commissioned and commissioned officers for 
reserve must also be provided. 

Article 66. 

Appointment and promotion shall take place only if 
the applicant be legally certified as to his capacity. 

The Federal Council may nullify any appointment 
or promotion which is contrary to the provision of the 
law of promotion. 

Article 67. 
The reports of ability of non-commissioned officers 
shall be given out by the commanders of units or mili- 

185 



tary schools immediately after successful passing of such 
courses. 

Article 68. 

Appointments and promotions of non-commissioned 
officers shall be made by the commanders of staffs and 
units, according to need and age of service. 

Article 69. 

Commissions of promotion to lieutenants, first lieu- 
tenants and captains shall be issued by the chief of the 
respective branch of the Military Department as soon 
as the candidates successfully pass the prescribed courses 
or schools. 

Such commissions shall be subject to the confirma- 
tion of the Division Commander (if the troop, the can- 
didate belongs to, is subordinate to such), Army Corps 
Commander or Fortress Commander. 

Article 70. 

Certificates of ability for appointment and promotion 
of staff officers shall be issued by the National Defense 
Commission. 

It shall propose the names for promotion and shall 
detail officers appointed by the Federal Government. 

Article 71. 
Promotion to first lieutenant takes place according to 
the age of service. All other promotions ensue according 
to need and efficiency. 

Article 72. 
An ordinance of the Federal Council shall determine, 
on the basis of the regulations of this law, the conditions 
otherwise necessary to obtain a commission. 

186 



VII. Horses for Military Purposes. 

Article 73. 
The government shall aid mounted officers in pro- 
curing, training and maintaining saddle-horses. 

Article 74. 

Lieutenant-colonels and officers of a higher grade, 
who are commanding officers of the First Line, shall be 
entitled to an allowance for maintaining a service horse. 

The same privilege shall be extended to the officers 
of the General Staff doing service with army staff or 
staffs of the First Line. 

For additional horses to which those officers are en- 
titled, as well as for horses of all other mounted officers; 
a daily allowance shall be made for the duration of 
service. 

All horses drawing an annual allowance and horses 
brought into service by officers shall be appraised when 
first brought into service as well as from time to time 
while in service, and at the end of it. 

The Federal Council shall provide the regulations for 
the annual allowance, the daily rental, as well as the 
mounts for Department officials and instructors. 

Article 75. 
Officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of 
cavalry shall keep a horse for duty. The government 
shall give the First Line officers of cavalry the same 
privilege of acquiring horses as the soldiers have. 

Article "jd. 
The cavalry horses are to be purchased either by 
the government or furnished by the men. 

187 



They are to be trained in remount courses, appraised 
and turned over to the men. 

Article "jy. 

The horses bought by the government are to be 
turned over to the soldier after they pay half of the 
appraised value. 

For horses furnished by the man and placed at the 
disposition of the department the government shall pay 
half of the appraised value. The sum of money v/hich 
the man has to pay to the government or the govern- 
ment to the man (constituting 50% of the appraised 
value) is to be paid in 10 yearly payments. 

Article 78. 

The mount shall remain in possession of the man as 
long as he belongs to the First Line. 

When not doing service the horse must be properly 
fed and cared for, and may be used for any purpose 
not hurting its fitness for service. The horse shall be 
requisitioned for every service its owner has to perform. 

Article 79. 
The man shall be liable for the loss of the horse or 
injury, if such is due to the man's carelessness. 

Cavalry soldiers, who maltreat their horses or be- 
come unable to properly take care of them, are to be 
transferred to another branch of arms or discharged 
from service. In the latter case the horse must be 
returned. 

Article 80. 

The cavalry horses are to be government property 
and therefore may not be sold by the man ; neither can 
an attachment or seizure be made. 



If a man completes lo years of service with the 
same horse, that horse shall be his property thereafter. 

Article 8i. 
Lodging, maintenance, feeding and use of cavalry 
horses, when not in military service, shall be controlled 
by the officers of the branch. 

Article 82. 
The government may contract with third parties for 
the maintenance of cavalry horses. In such cases the 
legal obligations between the parties are to be the same 
as between government and cavalry soldier. 

Article 83. 
Controversies arising from application of the regu- 
lations for cavalry horses are to be decided by the mili- 
tary department; if appeal is taken to the Federal 
Council, decision by that body shall be final. 

Article 84. 
An ordinance by the Federal Council shall regulate, 
on basis of the preceding rules, the legal relations per- 
taining to cavalry horses. 

Article 85. 
Officers shall furnish their own mounts for service. 
All other mounts for instruction service are to be 
furnished by the Military Department. 

Article 86. 
While doing service the mounts and pack-horses are 
to be lodged and fed by the government. 

189 



VIII. Armament and Personal Equipment; Equip- 
ment of Corps and other War Material. 

Articjle 8y. 

The Federal Assembly shall decree the general regu- 
lations relative to armament, personal equipment, equip- 
ment of corps and all other war material. The Federal 
Council shall adopt specifications for manufacturing 
these articles. 

Article 88. 

Arms and personal equipments shall be furnished to 
the soldier. 

Arms and equipment for the recruits shall be new 
or of equivalent value. 

Articles of armament or equipment, which are worn- 
out or become worthless, are to be replaced immediately. 

Article 89. 

The Government shall provide cyclists, attached to 
the First Line troops, with machine and accessories, upon 
payment of half of the purchase price. 

An ordinance of the Federal Council shall regulate 
the legal status of the cycles of the military cyclists. 

Article 90. 
Arms and equipment of soldiers are to be furnished 
by the Canton in which the men are recruited. Equip- 
ment and personal arms of a man, who has changed his 
residence permanently since recruiting, is to be furnished 
by the Canton in which he resides. 

Article 91. 
Arms and personal equipment are to be in possession 
of the man during the whole of his time of service. 

190 



The man must take good care of them. He shall 
be liable for loss or damage caused by his carelessness. 

To use personal equipment outside the service with- 
out permission is forbidden. 

Article 92. 

Arms and personal equipment are the property of the 
government and shall not be disposed of by the man. 
They shall not be attached or seized. 

Article 93. 

Arms and personal equipment are to be taken away 
from men who are not capable to take care of them or 
neglectful in their care, or who leave the service before 
finishing their obligation. 

Article 94. 

Men completing their service obligation may keep 
their arms and equipment as their property. 

Article 95. 

Ofificers shall furnish their own clothing, but their 
expenses shall be remitted according to regulations of 
the Federal Council. Other articles of personal equip- 
ment and arms are to be furnished gratuitously by the 
government. Mounted officers also shall get their ac- 
cessories without cost. 

Article 96. 
Corps equipment for staff and units are to be pro- 
vided by the government. The government shall replace 
worn-out equipment and repair equipment. 

191 



Article 97. 

Corps equipment is to be kept at places of mobili- 
zation. Each staff and unit shall have its separate place 
for material. Such places must be of easy access to 
owners. 

Any vehicles to complete the corps equipment are to 
be rented. 

Article 98. 

The government shall have ready at all times a 
supply of munition and explosives adequate for any war 
emergency. 

Article 99. 

Personal equipment and arms in hands of soldiers 
shall be subject to yearly inspection. The inspection 
shall take place: 

1. Of soldiers and non-commissioned officers doing 
service for the ensuing year. Such inspection 
shall be held during their respective schools or 
courses. 

2. For soldiers and non-commissioned officers not 
doing service for the ensuing year. The inspec- 
tion shall take place at certain (published) days 
in the municipalities. 

For such inspection the soldiers are not to be paid. 

For military courses the inspections are to be per- 
formed by the officers with the assistance of professional 
men, in the municipalities by the Commandant of District 
with the assistance of officers. Personal arms are to 
be inspected by the ''Comptrollers of Arms" or their 
deputies. 

Damaged arms or equipment are to be repaired or 
replaced immediately. 

102 



Article ioo. 
Yearly inspection of Landwehr and Landsturm are 
utilized to complete and correct the rosters and for the 
transfer of the men from one class to the other. 

Article ioi. 

Every two years the corps equipment of units as 
well as the one for Infantry and Engineer battalions 
shall be inspected by their respective commanders; all 
other war material by the chiefs of the branches of the 
military department, or their assigned deputies. 

The object of such inspections shall be to ascertain 
a correct storing, completeness and good condition of 
material, and especially of quick mobilization. 



THIRD PART. 

INSTRUCTION OF THE ARMY. 
I. Preparatory Instruction. 

Article 102. 

The Cantons shall see to it that males of school age 
receive physical training. 

This training is to be given by teachers who attain 
the requisite qualifications in teachers' colleges, and in 
special courses of instruction provided by the Federal 
government. 

The Federal Government shall exercise supervision 
over the fulfilment of these provisions. 

Article 103. 
The Federal Government may support such asso- 
ciations and other institutions as foster physical training 

193 



of boys after leaving school, and the preparation for their 
military service. 

The examination for fitness for the Army shall con- 
sist, in part, of a test for physical proficiency. 

The Federal Government shall adopt a course of 
instruction for such physical training. It shall also ar- 
range courses for the training of instructors for this 
branch. 

Article 104. 

The Federal Government may contribute to the main- 
tenance of associations and efforts the aim of which is 
the military preparation of the boys before they arrive 
at age. 

Special care is to be given to shooting practice. 

The Federal Government shall provide, free of 
charge, w^eapons, ammunition and necessary equipment. 

The Federal Government shall prescribe rules and 
exercise supervision over all such military preparation. 

II. Corps of Instructors. General Directions. 

Article 105. 

To conduct the instruction of recruits and training 
of non-commissioned and commissioned officers in the 
respective courses, a corps of instructors shall be formed. 

The Federal Assembly shall fix the number of in- 
structors for the different branches of arms. 

Article 106. 
At the head of the instructors' corps of each branch 
of arms shall be the Chief of the respective division 
of the Military Department. 

Each (district of an) Army Division shall have a 
District Instructor, who is to be in charge of the train- 

194 



ing and instruction of men, non-commissioned and com- 
missioned officers. 

Article 107. 

Instructors assigned to a certain branch of arms may 
be transferred for instruction in other branches, in Cen- 
tral schools, etc., as well as in the administrative branch 
of the military department. 

Such changes of their employment should take place 
according to fitness and opportunity. 

Officers of the corps of Instructors are to be assigned 
to the army and promoted as other officers. 

Article 108. 

For the instruction in recruiting and cadres-schools 

of fortress troops, instructors of the different branches 

of arms are to be assigned. Pending such service they 

are to be at the disposition of the Chief of the Artillery. 

Article 109. 

Instruction and training of tactical, troop and army 
units, and the conduct of recruiting schools are to be in 
the hands of troop (field) officers. 

Article iio. 
The Military Department shall outline the general 
plan of training. The commanders of schools, and troop 
commanders shall prepare a working program on the 
basis of the above instructions, for the courses and the 
school they have to conduct. They shall submit such 
schedules to their immediate superiors for approval. 

Article hi. 
The Central schools and the schools for the officers 
of the General Staff are to be organized so as to insure 
a uniform training. 

195 



Article 112. 
The time of instruction, especially the time to hold 
recruiting schools should be selected so as to disturb as 
little as possible the civil occupation of the man. 

Article 113. 

For a scientific military training of officers, especially 
the officers of the corps of instructors, the ''Ecole Poly- 
technique Federale" at Zurich shall maintain an addi- 
tional faculty. 

Article 114. 

Any part of the service a man is prevented from 
fulfilling at the required time, must be made up later. 

An ordinance of the Federal Council may specify 
exceptions to the above rule. 

Article 115. 
The fixed duration of courses and schools is not to 
include the time necessary for organization and dis- 
charge, which should, however, not extend to more than 
two days for infantry and cavalry and three days for 
other branches of arms. 

Article 116. 

The military authorities are authorized to call to 
service, for the organization of schools and courses, 
the necessary musicians, hospital help, gunsmiths, far- 
riers, etc. 

Article 117. 

The commanders of schools and courses shall report 
briefly on the conduct of such. To this report is to be 
added that of the inspecting officer of the school or 
course. The report shall be sent to the Military Depart- 
ment through military channels. 

196 



III. Instruction and Training of Recruits. 
Article ii8. 
The recruiting schools are to train the men to be- 
come soldiers, and to serve as a practical instruction of 
cadres. The duration of such schools for Infantry and 
Engineers shall be sixty-five days; for Cavalry ninety; 
for Artillery and Fortress troops seventy-five ; for Sani- 
tary, Veterinary, Commissary and Train troops, sixty 

days. 

Article 119. 

Musicians, gunsmiths, farriers, and orderlies of offi- 
cers shall receive their necessary professional training 
in the recruiting school or in special courses ordered by 
the Federal Council. In the latter case they shall serve 
only forty days of the recruiting school. 

Sanitary Corps soldiers shall take, besides the re- 
cruiting school, a hospital course, the duration of which 
is to be fixed by the Federal Council. 

IV. Repetition Courses. 
Article 120. 
First Line troops must pass an annual repetition 
course to last eleven days, except those for the Artillery 
and Fortress troops, which shall last fourteen days. 

Privates and corporals need only take seven yearly 
repetition courses, cavalry eight, non-commissioned offi- 
cers from sergeant up only ten. Courses passed in lower 
grades shall count also. 

Article 121. 
Repetition courses of First Line troops are to be so 
arranged that an adequate change of training in smaller 
tactical units with training in army units shall take place. 

197 



Article 122. 

Landwehr repetition courses of eleven days for all 
branches shall be held every four years. Privates and 
corporals of the Landwehr must take only one repetition 
course. Landwehr men assigned to the First Line must 
do service with those troops. 

Article 123. 

In case of reorganization of army units, or new arma- 
ment, etc., the Federal Assembly is authorized to order 
special courses and fix their duration. The Federal As- 
sembly is also authorized to arrange special courses of 
one to three days for parts of the Landsturm. 

In urgent cases the Federal Council may call the 
Landsturm of certain territories for such courses. 

V. Obligatory and Voluntary Rifle-Practice. 

Article 124. 

Enlisted men and non-commissioned officers of the 
First Line and Landwehr armed with rifles or carabines, 
as well as the subaltern officers of the troops, shall pass 
a yearly rifle practice test. Such tests are to be con- 
ducted by the rifle clubs according to the Federal regu- 
lations. 

Those who neglect this test must undergo a special 
course without pay. 

Article 125. 

Rifle practice in clubs, if subsidized by the govern- 
ment, shall be conducted according to the military regu- 
lations. Courses for rifle firing instruction for such 
clubs shall be adopted by the Federal Government. 

198 



Article 126. 
The Federal Government may aid financially any 
movement toward preparatory military training, organ- 
ized and subject to Federal regulations. 

VI. Instruction and Training of Non-commissioned 
Officers. 

Article 127. 

Soldiers of Infantry, Sanitary, Commissary and Train 
troops, recommended for promotion to non-commissioned 
officers' rank must pass a school for non-commissioned 
officers lasting twenty days; those of Cavalry, Artillery, 
Engineers and Fortress troops one of thirty days' du- 
ration. 

The call for such schools shall follow a recom- 
mendation of the troop officers and instructors of the 
recruiting school, or the officers of the unit of a repeti- 
tion course. 

Article 128. 

Newly appointed corporals, must pass a recruiting 
school to qualify. This obligation does not include non- 
commissioned officers recommended for the school for 
officers. 

Article 129. 

Non-commissioned officers recommended as fourriers 
(non-commissioned officers of Quartermasters' Depart- 
ment) must pass a school for fourriers lasting thirty 
days. 

Newly appointed fourriers must pass a recruiting 
school to qualify. Non-commissioned officers nominated 
to be staff secretaries must pass a course for staff secre- 
taries of thirty days' duration. 

199 



VII. Instruction and Training of Officers. 

Article 130. 
The specific training for officers shall take place in 
a school for officers. The duration of these schools is 
as follows : 

1. For Infantry, Cavalry and Fortress troops, 
eighty days. 

2. For Artillery and Engineers, one hundred and 
five days. 

3. For Train troops, sixty days. 

4. For Sanitary and Commissary troops and Veteri- 
nary Surgeons, forty-five days. 

Officers' schools for Artillery and Engineers may be 
held in two parts. 

Article 131. 

To the schools for officers only non-commissioned 
officers are admitted. The call shall be based on the 
recommendation of commanding officers and instructing 
officers in recruiting schools and field officers of repeti- 
tion courses. 

Non-commissioned officers of the sanitary and veteri- 
nary branches, to be called to the officers' school, must 
have passed the Cantonal examination for the medical, 
veterinary and pharmaceutical professions. The call for 
the officers' school of the sanitary and veterinary service 
shall be issued by the chief of the sanitary and veterinary 
service. It shall not be necessary to have the recom- 
mendation of the officers of a former course. 

Article 132. 
Newly appointed lieutenants must pass a recruiting 
school to qualify. Engineers and veterinary surgeons 

200 



shall undergo this course in recruiting schools of other 
branches of arms. 

Article 133. 

Candidates for commissary officers' positions shall 
receive their training for such service in a course of 
twenty days' duration. 

Newly appointed quartermasters must pass half of a 
recruiting school to qualify. 

Article 134. 

1. For advancement to captaincy, subaltern officers 
of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers and 
Fortress troops must pass Central School II, of 
thirty days' duration. 

2. For promotion to a higher rank, first Ueutenants 
of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers, For- 
tress Troops, Commissary Troops and Tram 
Troops must pass a recruiting school as com- 
mander of a unit. 

3. For promotion to a higher rank captains must 
pass Central School II of a duration of fifty 
days. This course may be arranged in two parts. 
To be ordered to this course it shall be requisite 
to possess a certificate of ability for advancement 
to a higher grade, acquired in a former military 
course. 

For captains of Sanitary, Veterinary, Commissary- 
and Train-service, Central School II can be substituted 
by another special course. 

Article 135. 
The Federal Assembly, in addition to above-men- 
tioned courses and for further training of officers, shall 

201 



arrange for Firing schools, as well as for Technical 
courses. 

Officers, for the purpose of further training, may be 
ordered to courses and schools of other branches of arms 
than their own, or to special service. 

Article 136. 

The Federal Assembly designates the schools and 
courses necessary for the instruction of officials of field 
post and field telegraphy, as well as for officers of the 
transportation and territorial service. 

VIII. General Staff. 
Article 137. 

Instruction for service in the General Staff shall be 
obtained in the following courses : 

1. General Staff School I of seventy days' duration 
for future officers of the General Staff (article 
43), this course to be divided into two parts. 

2. General Staff School II of forty-two days' du- 
ration for captains (article 43). 

3. General Staff School III of twenty-one days' du- 
ration for officers having successfully passed the 
General Staff School I and II. 

To these schools field officers also may be ordered. 
The Federal Assembly may authorize additional practice 
courses. 

Article 138. 

Every year a number of officers of the General Staff 
shall be ordered to duty in the General Staff Depart- 
ment. Field officers may also be assigned to such work. 

202 



Article 139. 

Officers of the General Staff assigned to headquarters 
are to take part in the exercises of those staffs. Other 
officers of the General Staff may be ordered to such 
exercises. Officers of the General Staff also are to be 
ordered to schools and courses of the different branches 
of arms. 

Article 140. 

Officers of the Railroad Department must take a 
course of twenty days and afterwards, according to 
need, may be called for work under the General Staff 
or special courses. 

To these courses and to this work other railroad offi- 
cials may be ordered. 

IX. Staff Duties. 

Article 141. 

The staffs shall be called out every two years for 
tactical maneuvers for the duration of eleven days. 
These maneuvers are to be directed alternately by the 
Army Corps Commander and Division Commanders. 

The Military Department shall designate the staff 
officers who are to take part in those exercises. 

Article 142. 

Every two years strategic maneuvers shall be held. 
They are to be directed by an officer of the Military 
Department, Army Corps and Division Commanders, 
their chiefs of staff, the Fortress Commanders and other 
officers designated by the Military Department. Such 
exercises shall last eleven days. 

203 



Article 143. 

The officers of the Engineers' Corps at the disposal 
of the Engineer Branch are to be called for work in 
that branch. 

X. Inspection. 

Article 144. 

The inspection of schools and courses shall take place 
as follows : 

1. The repetition courses by the immediate superior 
of the commander of the course. 

2. Exercises directed by any Army Corps Com- 
mander or a Chief of Branch by the Chief of 
the Military Department. 

3. Schools and courses directed by Fortress Com- 
manders are to be inspected by the commander 
of the army corps, in whose territory the fortress 
lies. 

4. Schools and courses held in the district of an 
army corps, Division or garrison by the proper 
commander of that unit. 

5. All other schools by an Army Corps, Division 
Commander or Chief of Branch designated by 
the Military Department. 

Article 145. 

If an inspector be prevented from acting in his ca- 
pacity the Military Department shall designate a sub- 
stitute. 



204 



FOURTH PART* 

MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. 

I. Federation and the Cantons. 

Article 146. 
The Federal Council shall direct the military adminis- 
tration. The part of military administration assigned 
to the Cantons shall be directed by them under super- 
vision of the Federal government. 

Article 147. 

The Federal Council shall have power to enforce 
the execution of these articles. 

It shall approve the service and drill regulations with 
the exception of the administrative regulations, the ap- 
proval of which is subject to the Federal Assembly. 

Article 148. 

The Federal Council shall divide the territory of the 
Federation into districts of Divisions in such a way that 
the units of a Division will be recruited from the males 
of such districts. 

The borders of a district should, wherever possible, 
be identical with Cantonal borders. 

Article 149. 
The Cantons shall be divided into districts from 
which an infantry regiment of the First Line can be 
recruited. Wherever it is impossible to make regimental 

205 



districts, districts may be formed for battalions or com- 
panies. The Federal Council shall designate the district 
lines when such are submitted by the Cantons. 

Article 150. 

The Cantons must demand of each citizen, tempora- 
rily or permanently residing within its borders, proof 
of having performed his obligations. This proof should 
be contained in the citizen's ''Service Booklet." Every 
time a change of temporary or permanent residence is 
made, permission therefore must be reported to the mili- 
tary authorities of the Canton, from which the man was 
recruited or, if the man be assigned to a federal unit, 
to the Chief of Branch. 

Article 151. 

Each Canton shall keep a roster of all the men of 
military age residing therein; these rosteis are the basis 
of miHtary control and information. 

Each Canton shall keep a roster of men assigned to 
auxiliary service. Corps rosters of staffs and troop units 
are kept by the Federal and Cantonal military authori- 
ties, as well as by the commanders of staffs and units. 
The Federal Council shall adopt ordinances regulating 
the control over these bodies, and supervising proper 
enactment. 

Article 152. 

Each Canton shall appoint ''District Commanders" to 
keep the Cantonal roster and conduct necessary com- 
munication with men under military obligations. Ac- 
cording to need, the districts may be divided into sections, 
with a "Section Chief" at the head of each. 

206 



Article 153. 

The Cantons shall furnish the companies and bat- 
tahons of infantry, squadrons of dragoons, as well as 
the units and battalions of Landsturm and the auxiliary 
service. 

Where the effective strength is insufficient to form 
whole battalions, companies or squadrons of dragoons, 
the Federal Assembly shall fix the formation. 

Article 154. 
The Federation shall form all units and staffs not 
furnished by the Cantons, and organize the branches of 
the service. 

Article 155. 
The necessary officers, non-commissioned officers and 
soldiers of other branches of arms are to be assigned 
to the Cantonal units by the Federation. 

Article 156. 

The Cantons shall appoint officers of Cantonal units 
and infantry officers of the staffs of fusileer battalions. 

The Federal Council shall appoint the staff officers 
of battalions that are made up from more than one 
Canton. 

The Federal Council shall appoint the officers of 
companies recruited from more than one Canton. 

The Federal Council shall appoint all those officers 
which the Cantons are not entitled to appoint. 

Article 157. 
The Federal Council shall assign officers and non- 
commissioned officers who are over the quota required 
in any Canton to those Cantons that are not able to 
furnish the required number, 

207 



Article 158. 

The Federation shall furnish the armament, the 
corps equipment and other war material. 

The Cantons shall furnish the equipment of the Can- 
tonal and Federal troops according to the Federal speci- 
fications. 

Equipment for a whole year, as well as a reserve 
equipment of arms and personal equipment, must always 
be on hand. 

The Federal Assembly shall fix the amount to be 
paid to the Cantons for personal equipment, its replacing 
and upkeep. 

Article 159. 

The Cantons shall supervise and maintain the corps 
equipment of the Cantonal and Federal troop units. 

The Federation shall supervise and maintain all other 
corps material. 

Arms and articles of equipment taken over from sol- 
diers must be kept in good condition and stored in such 
manner as to assure a quick re-equipment in case of 
mobilization. 

Articles of equipment returned by soldiers leaving 
service before finishing their military obligations, are to 
be laid aside for reserve equipment. 

Article 160. 
The Federal Council shall issue calls for service. The 
calls for service of troops are to be issued by the Can- 
tonal military authorities. 

Article 161. 
Applications for dispensation from service shall be 
decided by the Cantonal military authorities for Cantonal 

208 



troops, and by the Federal military authorities for Feder- 
al troops. 

Rules governing dispensations are established by the 
Federal Council. If an officer applies for dispensation 
from service his immediate superior officer has to be 
consulted. 

Article 162. 

If a Canton fails to fulfill any obligation herein the 
Federation shall perform such obligation and assess the 
cost against such Canton. 

Article 163. 

Personal equipment, armament, all corps and war 
material shall be at the disposal of the Federation and 
at the disposal of the Cantons, according to their needs, 
but subject to the Federal laws. 

Article 164. 

Food and drink for troops in Federal service shall 
never be subject to any Cantonal or municipal taxation. 
Cantonal or municipal monopolies may not be made ap- 
plicable to dealings in the necessities for troops. 

Military institutions or military works as well as 
Federal military properties shall be free of any Cantonal 
or municipal taxes. Contracts, serving the national de- 
fense, shall not be subject to any Cantonal fees or 
permits. 

Article 165. 

Service cycles of cyclists and automobiles for milita- 
ry purposes shall be exempt from Cantonal taxes or 
fees. 

209 



Article i66. 
The Cantons shall collect the military taxes, and de- 
liver half of the net collection to the Federation. 

II. The Military Administratian of the Federation. 

Article 167. 

The Chief of the Swiss Military Department (a 
member of the Federal Council) shall direct the Bureau 
of the Military Department. 

The Bureau shall execute the orders of the Chief of 
the MiHtary Department and prepare his recommenda- 
tions for the Federal Council; it shall assume the cor- 
respondence of the Department and keep the archives. 

The Secretary of the National Defense Commission 
shall be attached to the Bureau of the Military Depart- 
ment. 

Article 168. 

Subordinate to the Military Department shall be the 
Chiefs of the Branches of Service: 

The Chiefs of the General Staff; 

The Chiefs of the Branches of Infantry, Cavalry, 
Artillery, Engineers, and Fortress Department 
(Chief of Branch) ; 

Chief Surgeon ; 

Chief Veterinary; 

Chief of Commissary; 

Chief of Military Technical Department; 

Chief of War Material; 

Chief of the Topographical Service; 

Chief Remount officer. 

Assigned to the Chiefs of Branch shall be the neces- 
sary officials and employees. 

210 



Article 169. 
The duties of the Chiefs of Branch are as follows: 

1. To report and recommend on all affairs concern- 
ing their department; 

2. To prepare manuals, ordinances and legislative 
bills; 

3. To prepare annual budgets of their Branch and 
annual reports of their business. 

The Chiefs of Branch must transact the business of 
the Federal with the Cantonal Military Department and 
with the officers. They execute the orders of the De- 
partment and transact such business, which by orders of 
the annual budget and general rules, established by the 
Department, is committed to them. 

Article 170. 
The functions of the General Staff Department are 
as follows: 

1. Preparation for mobilization and disposition of 
the army in case of war, and general preparation 
for war; 

2. Approval and recommendation in all matters per- 
taining to National Defense, to the army as a 
whole and to the Army Staff ; 

3. Approval of recommendation relating to ma- 
neuvers of large units and exercises of the higher 
staffs ; 

4. Organization and conduct of schools and courses 
for officers of the General Staff and staff secre- 
taries, issuing the certificate of ability for cap- 
tains of the General Staff and staff secretaries; 
consideration of the application for dispensing 

211 



with service of officers of the General Staff and 
staff secretaries ; 

5. Recommendation for assigning officers of the 
General Staff and staff secretaries to the staffs 
after consultation with the field officers; 

6. Maintenance of the effective strength of the 
General Staff corps; 

7. Preparation of the railroad transportation and 
territorial service, the field post and field tele- 
graph departments, training of officers and the 
personnel of these branches; 

8. Gathering for the emergency of war : Formation 
concerning the Swiss and foreign armies, mili- 
tary statistics and geographical condition of the 
coimtry and neighboring countries ; 

9. Supervision of the Military Library and the stock 

of army maps. 

Article 171. 

The Chiefs of Branch of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, 
Engineers and Fortress Department shall have the fol- 
lowing prerogatives : 

1. To transact the business of their branch; 

2. To administer units, staffs and auxiliary service, 
formed by the Federation ; 

3. To supervise the training of their branch, the 
general organization of schools and courses and 
the managment of such, except as provided for 
in article 109; 

4. To consider application for dispensation, if such 
are not within jurisdiction of the Cantons ; 

5. To approve and forward matters concerning offi- 
cers (nomination, promotion, assignment, dis- 

212 



charge, etc.), issue certificates of ability for sub- 
altern officers and captains named for promotion. 

The following officers shall have the same powers: 
Chief Surgeon for his branch; 
Chief Veterinary for his branch; 
Chief of Commissary for his branch. 

Article 172. 
The Infantry Branch shall supervise the organization 
and conduct of the central schools, preparatory military 
courses, and all rifle shooting. 

Article 173. 
The Cavalry Branch shall supervise the purchase and 
training of horses, turn them over to the cavalry per- 
sonnel, control and administer all such horses, and 
supervise the remount depots. 

Article 174. 
The Artillery Branch shall administer the training of 
Train troops, training of orderlies for officers and their 
assignment to staffs and units. 

Article 175. 
The Engineer Branch shall supervise the work of 
all engineer officers in preparation for war in conformity 
with the directions of the General Staff; supervise the 
department for mines, care for the stock of explosives, 
instruments and material for demohtion, and prepare 
fortifications for time of war. 

Article 176. 
The Fortress Branch shall maintain, complete and 
supervise permanent fortifications, take charge of the 

213 



Bureau of Construction of Fortifications and the Bureau 
for Firing of Fortifications. 

Fort guards protecting and maintaining the fortifi- 
cation works, shall be governed by regulations adopted 
by the Federal Council. 

Article 177. 
The Sanitary Branch shall direct the whole sanitary 
service, including the voluntary auxiliary service of this 
branch, military insurance and physical examination of 
all males who have reached their 19th year. 

Article 178. 
The Veterinary Branch shall supervise all the veteri- 
nary service, appraise the service horses and fix their 
depreciation in value and decide all claims pertaining to 
such, as well as train and assign farriers. 

Article 179. 

The Commissary Branch shall be headquarters for 
the whole system of accounts and subsistence of the 
Army. It shall furnish and care for all food material 
and replace stock. 

The Army storehouses and supply depots shall be 
under its care, as well as the administration of the Feder- 
al barracks. It shall supervise the Military Department's 
printing office and control the entire stock in hands of 
the administrative Department of War Material. 

Article 180. 
The Military Technical Branch shall take care of all 
business pertaining to armament and improvement of 
war material. It shall furnish the personal equipment 
not furnished by the Cantons, adopt ordinances and 
manuals for war material and personal equipment, turn 

214 



over the finished material to the Department of War 
Material and of Fortress. 

It shall be in charge of the military workshops, 
powder factories, experimental stations for guns and 
small firearms and shall control ammunition. 

Article i8i. 

The Department for War Material shall supervise 
the storing, inventory and distribution of the material 
received from the Military Technical Department. 

It shall distribute and turn over to the Cantons all 
such material belonging to Cantonal units, care for the 
material remaining with the Federation, direct the 
service in the Federal arsenals, munition and explosives 
depots, and exercise supervision over the service in the 
Cantonal arsenals and munition depots. 

It shall provide military schools and courses with the 
necessary material and ammunition. 

The Department for War Material shall exercise 
supervision over the personal equipment furnished by 
the Federation, especially the personal equipment and 
armament of officers. It shall supervise the Cantonal 
stock of equipment, and control the arms and personal 
equipment of the troops. 

Article 182. 
The Department for Topography Service shall be in 
charge of surveys and make and issue maps for the 
Army. It may also draw up maps not strictly for mili- 
tary purposes. 

Article 183. 
The Remount Department shall purchase and deliver 
mounts for officers, and furnish horses for the instruc- 
tion service. 

215 



Article 184. 
The Federal Council by resolution may combine 
any branch of the Military Department, or may order 
changes in the duties of the branches. 

III. Command. 

Article 185. 

The Federal administration must be organized so as 

to secure for the commanders of Army units and tactical 

and elementary units the prestige due their command 

in order to maintain proper discipline among the troops. 

Article 186. 

The commanders of army, tactical and elementary 
units shall be responsible for the constant effective 
strength of their troops. 

They shall control the presence and condition of 
personal equipment and arms, as well as the corps equip- 
ment of their troops. 

Article 187. 

Commanders of Army units must convince themselves 
personally of the standard of training, efficiency and 
readiness of their units. 

They shall have the power to require reports from 
their subordinates. 

They may promulgate, personally or through their 
chiefs of staff, measures for the assembly and mobili- 
zation of their troops. 

Article 188. 
Reports and recommendations of troop commanders 
are to be sent to superior military authorities through 
military channels. 

216 



These recommendations should be given due conside- 
ration in making up the annual budget, in regulations 
governing recruiting, in compiling programs for training 
and decrees calling troops to military schools and special 
courses. 

Article 189. 

An ordinance of the Federal Council shall regulate 
the keeping of records of service and qualifications of 
officers and non-commissioned officers, as well as the 
control of effective strength of troops within the Army 
units. 

Such an ordinance shall determine the spheres of 
activity and the service relations of troop commanders. 

It shall regulate the service of the clerical force of 
the bureau attached to commanders of Army units. 

Article 190. 
The Federal Council shall fix the allowance for the 
commanders of the Army units. 

Article 191. 
Important questions concerning the National Defense 
are to be deliberated on by a Commission of National 
Defense, consisting of the Chief of the Military Depart- 
ment, acting as chairman ; the Army Corps Commanders, 
the Chief of General Stafif and the Chief of Branch of 

Infantry. 

The functions of the Commission shall cease as soon 
as a General is appointed. 

Article 192. 
In the proceedings of the Commission which pertain 
to the issuance of certificates of ability, as well as the 

217 



recommendation for promotion and assignment of staff 
officers to be appointed by the Federation, and in pro- 
ceedings relative to discharge of staff officers from their 
command, the Division Commanders and Chiefs of 
Branches which are not members of the Commission 
shall likewise take part. 

Article 193. 

The recommendations of Chiefs of Branch and re- 
spective troop commanders concerning officers to be 
promoted and assigned by the Commission of National 
Defense shall be submitted to said Commission. 

The secretary of the Commission shall collect and 
classify all records of officers of all arms who have 
reached the rank of captain. These records shall show 
the assignments and the service performed. 

These records shall be at the disposal of the Com- 
mission of National Defense. 

Article 194. 

To discuss measures of efficiency and improvements 
in military matters a conference shall take place at least 
once a year, between the Chief of the Military Depart- 
ment, acting as chairman, and the commanders of army 
units. In this conference the Chiefs of Branch desig- 
nated by the Military Department shall also participate. 



218 



FIFTH PART* 

ACTIVE SERVICE. 
I. General Directions. 

Article 195. 

It shall be the duty of the Army to uphold the in- 
dependence of the country against foreign aggression, 
and to maintain peace and order within (article 2 of the 
Constitution of May 29, 1874). 

Article 196. 

The Army shall be at the disposal of the Federation. 
The Cantons may make use of the troops of their terri- 
tory in an emergency in case the Federation has not 
provided therefore. 

Article 197. 

Cantons shall bear the cost of levies of troops for 
Cantonal use. 

Pay, subsistence and lodging of such troops shall be 
furnished by the Cantons in accordance with the Federal 
regulations. 

Article 198. 

The Federal Council shall order the call of troops 
for Federal service, and supervise the execution of the 
call. 

All troops called for active Federal Service shall take 
the oath of war. 

219 



Article 199. 

The Federal Council may order troops on picket. 

When placed on picket no military person shall 
leave the country without' permission of the military 
authorities. 

Article 200. 

The order to place a troop unit on picket shall in- 
clude all officers, non-commissioned officers and privates 
of the unit, if no Hmitation is contained in the order. 

Article 201. 

In case of mobilization the Federal Council may put 
under the military law all the officials, employees and 
workmen of the military administration, establishments 
and workshops, as well as those of the public transpor- 
tation services. 

Article 202. 

In case of a call for active service the Federal Council 
may put the employees of the military administration and 
works as well as those of the public transportation under 
the military laws. 

Article 203. 

In time of war citizens free of military service shall 
put themselves at the disposal of the country and do all 
in their power for the defense of the country. 

In time of war or danger of war, every person shall 
put his personal and real property at the disposal of the 
troop commanders or military authorities for the purpose 
of military emergencies. The Federation shall compen- 
sate in full all just claims. 



II. Commander-in-Chief. 

Article 204. 

As soon as the mobiHzation of an important part of 
the Army is ordered the Federal Assembly shall appoint 
a General. 

The General shall be the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army. He shall be instructed by the Federal Council 
as to the object of the mobilization. 

To relieve the General of his duties before the troops 
are distributed at proper strategic points, shall require 
serious cause, and the reasons to be set forth in a res- 
olution of the Federal Council. 

Article 205. 
The Chief of the General Staff shall be appointed by 
the Federal Council after consultation with the General. 

Article 206. 
In case of mobilization the Swiss Military Depart- 
ment shall assume command of the Army until such 
time as a General is elected. 

Article 207. 
Should the General be prevented from commanding, 
the senior Army Corps Commander, and in case of his 
absence the Chief of the General Staff, shall be in 
command. 

Article 208. 
The General shall order all military measures he con- 
siders necessary to be carried out. 

He shall dispose at his pleasure of all the military 
power and resources of the country. 

221 



Article 209. 

The General may fix the order of battle without 
being bound by the definite provisions of this law. 

He shall be authorized to relieve officers of their 
command and appoint officers to temporary commands. 

Article 210. 
Should the General demand the mobilization of addi- 
tional army units the Federal Council shall call them out. 

Article 211. 
The Swiss Military Department shall direct the terri- 
torial service. 

III. Horses and Vehicles. 

Article 212. 
The Federation shall have the right to use all horses, 
mules and means of transportation within its territory 
in case of mobilization. 

Article 213. 

Should the National Defense require the placing on 
picket of horses, mules and other means of transpor 
tation the Federal Council shall order so and meantime 
place an embargo thereon. 

When the picket is decreed the municipalities shall 
immediately bring up to date their records of controls 
of horses within their limits. 

From the day of announcement of the picket decree 
no one in possession of a horse, mule or other means 
of transportation, be such in his own name or in that of 
a third person, shall be permitted to dispose of the same 
without permission of the military authorities. 

222 



A fine of from lOO to 10,000 francs and imprison- 
ment not to exceed six months may be imposed by the 
Federal Penal Court for violation of this section. 

Article 214. 

With the promulgation of a picket decree an exami- 
nation of all horses, mules and means of transportation 
as to their military value shall take place. Such material 
as is found unfit for military use may be sold by the 
owner. 

Meanwhile, the assignment of horses, mules and 
means of transportation to the staffs and units shall 
take place. 

Article 215. 

The orders for mobilization of horses, mules and 
other means of transportation are combined in the regu- 
lations of mobilization. 

Municipalities shall be required to have all horses, 
mules and other means of transportation fit for service 
in time and at the designated corps-gathering places at 
the disposal of the Place Commander. 

If the number of horses and mules is greater than 
required, the surplus shall be sent to horse depots. 

Article 216. 
The Federation shall pay to the municipalities in- 
demnity for such damage as may result from the use 
of horses, mules and other means of transportation. 

IV. Transportation Service in Time of War. 
Article 217. 

In time of war or danger of war the Federal Council, 
or the General after his appointment, may decree the 
operation of the railroads for war service. 

22Z 



In that case the right of disposition of railroads, their 
material, the personnel of their employees and the di- 
rection of their operation is transferred to the military 
authorities. The personnel shall not leave the service 
and shall come under the military laws. 

Article 218. 

The Federal Council, or the General when appointed, 
may order the construction of tracks, buildings or other 
installations, or the destruction of such. 

Article 219. 

The Federation shall reimburse private corporations 
for damages caused by military necessity. 

Disagreement as to the amount to be paid by the 
Federation to private corporations shall be decided by 
the Federal Court. 

Article 220. 

The aforesaid regulations apply to steamship com- 
panies, also. 

Enacted by the Standerat, 
Bern, April 12, 1907. 

The President: Adalbert Wirz. 
The Clerk: Schatzmann. 

Also enacted by the Nationalrat, 
Bern, April 12, 1907. 

The President: Camille Decoppet. 
The Clerk: Ringier. 



224 



THE front page illustration represents Helvetia, Switzerland, 
standing well armed "In the midst of the conflagration of 
the peoples," and with her shield and sword calmly fending off 
the furies of war from the woman and the children who seek 
protection by her side. This historical and beautiful work is by 
Otto Schweizer, of Philadelphia, born a Swiss and naturalized 
here and a personal friend of the author of this book. 

It represents the aspirations not only of the people of Swit- 
zerland but of our own Republic as well. Switzerland is on the 
right flank of France and on the left flank of Germany. Her 
neutrality is respected, her territory is uninvaded, and her insti- 
tutions hardly threatened by the greatest war of history now 
raging around her. 

Like our country, Switzerland owes her free institutions, in 
large measure, to the fact that those who sought freedom found 
protection there in the distance or geographical condition of the 
region. But military science of to-day has overcome all natural 
defenses and distance is as nothing to the modern means of 
transportation. The Swiss Republic, more immediately menaced 
by imperial dangers and imperial arms than our Republic and so 
much longer exposed to those dangers has been more stimulated 
to prepare a defense than we, perhaps more so because she has 
not our great numbers to create overconfidence. Expert in 
marksmanship, disciplined and prepared to the minutest detail, 
the highly efiicient Swiss army of trained citizen soldiers pre- 
serves and does not threaten the liberties of the Swiss people. 
The Swiss are free because they are prepared; they are neutral 
because they are free and prepared. 

There are other features of this work worthy of attention. 
The woman and the children have been in danger and distress, 
but one of the children has already dried its eyes and is looking 
up with childhood's instant appreciation to the figure that pro- 
tects it. But look at the face of this Swiss Goddess of Liberty 
and then at the faces of the two demons of war. The latter, 
convulsed with passion, are oblivious to persons or directions. 
They are furies of war performing a dance of destruction. To 
them there is no possible comprehension or sympathy with the 
joy of service, the sanity and faith expressed upon the face of 
the great central figure which so clearly reveals preparedness 
protecting both motherhood and childhood under a great shield. 

There is so much of the history of the free peoples in this 
work of art; there is so much of the expression of the duties 
and opportunities of neutrality; there is so much in common 
between the position of Switzerland to-day and the position of 
our country that it is a fitting illustration showing the efficiency 
of the citizen soldiery of Switzerland. 

225 



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